Four Bills were at the first reading in the Riigikogu
They concerned the financing of culture through gambling tax, state fee rates, the use of privatization proceeds, and political advertising.
The Bill on Amendments to the Gambling Act, the Gambling Tax Act, the Act on Amendments to the Gambling Tax Act, and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia Act (728 SE), initiated by 16 Members of the Riigikogu, passed the first reading. It is intended to increase funding for sports and culture through gambling tax revenues.
The aim of the bill is to update the regulations applicable to gambling and its organization in order to increase the reliability and transparency of the business environment in Estonia. The bill plans to lower the gambling tax rate in stages, i.e. by 0.5 percentage points per year, from six to four percent. According to the initiators, the goal is to design a taxation system in Estonia where a certain base amount remains in the state budget and additional revenue is generated at the expense of actual market growth.
The explanatory memorandum refers to the report of the Foresight Centre “The Future of Private Funding in the Field of Culture and Sports”, the summary of which states that a tax on remote gambling could generate additional revenue to finance culture and sports. According to a simulation carried out based on market participants’ estimates, tax revenue from remote gambling could multiply by 2029, according to a more optimistic forecast. According to the report, harnessing this potential requires both increasing the country’s capacity in procedural acts and creating an attractive tax rate and design compared to other countries.
Among other things, the Bill is intended to correct the definition of remote gambling, raise the age limit for players of gambling games and the amount of the fines applied for violating the Gambling Act, and create possibilities for suspending operating permits for organising gambling and using crypto assets in gambling.
Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa) and Kadri Tali (Reform Party) took the floor during the debate.
18 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion of Isamaa Parliamentary Group to reject the Bill at the first reading and 48 were against it. Thus the Bill passed the first reading.
The Bill on Amendments to the State Fees Act (735 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It will raise the state fees for public procurement contestation notices to bring them into line with actual costs.
According to the explanatory memorandum, disputes arising from the organization of public procurement are resolved by the Public Procurement Review Committee as a mandatory out-of-court body whose workload has increased significantly due to the increase in the number of disputes. While it was originally planned that the costs of the committee’s activities would be covered by state fees for contested cases, they currently only cover half of the labour costs. The relevant state fee rates have been in force since 2007 when the committee was established.
The bill will double the state fee rates for contesting public procurement: from EUR 640 to EUR 1,280 where the estimated value of a public procurement is below the international threshold, and from EUR 1,280 to EUR 2,560 where the estimated value is greater than or equal to the threshold. According to the explanatory memorandum, the Bill will affect all public procurement disputes, as the state fee must be paid at the same rate in the administrative court and circuit court of appeal when appealing against a decision of the Review Committee.
The Bill on the Repeal of the Use of Privatisation Proceeds Act and Amendments to Other Associated Acts (693 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It will repeal the Use of Privatisation Proceeds Act and liquidate the ownership reform reserve fund of the Government. The use of the proceeds from land privatization will be decided during the state budget procedure in the future.
The ownership reform reserve fund was established to cover the costs associated with reforms during the transition to a democratic state system after Estonia restored its independence. The proceeds from the privatisation of state land in the course of ownership reform are received into the reserve fund and they are used for covering the expenses related to the organisation of the return and privatisation of and compensation for assets and other expenses related to the land and ownership reform. Among other things, the maintenance and reconstruction of architectural monuments and expenses related to apartment ownership transferred to the state have been financed from the fund.
According to the explanatory memorandum to the bill, the activities for which the reserve fund was established are now coming to an end and the fund has mostly fulfilled its objectives.
The Bill on Amendments to the Advertising Act and the Personal Data Protection Act (696 SE), initiated by the Government, was also at the first reading. The formal conclusion of the first reading was deferred to the next sitting due to the end of the working hours of the sitting. The Bill will bring Estonian law into conformity with the European Union’s Political Advertising Transparency Regulation.
The regulation sets two major requirements for the publication of political advertising: advertisements must be published with a political advertising label, and a transparency notice must be prepared for them. Labels must be added to advertisements regardless of whether they are audiovisual, printed media, online, or offline advertising. The publisher of an advertisement is responsible for ensuring that the advertisement is properly labelled and that a transparency notice is provided.
Specific requirements are provided for online political advertising when targeting and delivery techniques based on the processing of personal data are used. In such cases, service providers must keep records to ensure that both personal data protection and transparency requirements are met.
According to the Bill, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority and the Data Protection Inspectorate will exercise supervision over compliance with the Political Advertising Transparency Regulation in Estonia. The bill also provides for misdemeanour penalties for violating the requirements.
Varro Vooglaid (Estonian Conservative People’s Party), Aivar Kokk (Isamaa) and Peeter Ernits (Estonian Conservative People’s Party) took the floor on behalf of their parliamentary groups during the debate.
After the sitting, the founding meeting of the Maritime Affairs Support Group will take place, convened by Member of the Riigikogu Annely Akkermann.
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
Riigikogu Press Service
Maris Meiessaar
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