News

During the first half of December the word pension must have been a curse word in Lithuania’s parliament Seimas. When opposition came up with the idea to restore pensions to the pre-crisis levels a small fuss in the beginning simmered into a great quarrel at the end, where everybody had an opinion, but no one had a solution.

Law on the Excise Duties of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter Law on Excise Duties) is being amended quite often, since 1994 even several times per year. A new wording of the Law on Excise Duties came into force only on 24 April 2010, but it has been already amended. The amendments were approved on 30 November 2010 by Lithuanian Parliament. It should be mentioned that these amendments are still not signed by the President of the Republic of Lithuania and it will come into force only after her signature and its official publication. The main reason for these amendments is Lithuania’s commitments to European Union to harmonize rates of excise duty with established by Directives and common to all EU Member States.

If for the past year you were living in Vilnius and buying milk, you should have noticed a significant increase in its price. According to the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania, a year ago one litre of 2.5% thickness milk cost 1.96Lt and today its price has increased to 2.57Lt. The difference is 0.61Lt or over 30%. Prices of other food products of essential importance have also gone up. The consequences have been quite painful to ordinary Lithuanians who spend most of their salary on public utilities, food and transport. These commodities constitute over 2/3 of the entire consumer basket of a typical Lithuanian shopper. It is no wonder then, that these rises in food prices have induced discussions about the introduction of markup regulations.

Advertising – one of the most effective forms for information and knowledge spread in the society. Advertising and its use, as many other actions of economic entities, is regulated by the laws thus economic entities are not free to choose the form or content of advertising and therefore economic entities ought to follow the particular requirements, the breach of which may cause unfavourable consequences. The Law on Advertising prohibits economic entities to exercise the actions that conflict with fair business practice and good commercial manners, including the use of advertising that is considered to be misleading. Thus econimic entities shall objectively evaluate the content of advertising and change or adjust it, in case of any doubts.