41 lawmakers voted in favor of the consideration of such amendments, 26 were against and 25 abstained.
Mykolas Majauskas of the opposition conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats asked whether calculations had been made to estimate how many single people, especially pensioners, would have to pay such a tax, and Finance Minister Vilius Sapoka said there would not be that many of them.
Meanwhile, Ingrida Simonyte, a HU-LCD member and chair of the parliamentary Committee on Audit, predicted that rich people would try to avoid paying such a tax by moving their personal assets "to their companies".
And liberal MP Simonas Gentvilas was angered by the fact that a real estate tax exemption was left I place for farmers.
The proposed amendments would see the reduction of the non-taxable value of non-commercial real estate from 220,000 to 100,000 euros.
If such changes are adopted, the state and municipalities would net around 9.2 million euros in additional revenue a year.