Lithuania’s Defence and Finance Ministries are working on a special app that will allow people to make donations for the country’s defence.
The app will reportedly not cost much to develop, and Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas says this will be done from “internal resources”.
“We will probably be able to roll out the app by the end of summer. The donation option is legally available, everything has been sorted out, and we are already working on how to make it available to the public sooner,” Kasčiūnas told.
“People will be able to set up both periodic payments and one-off payments, and people will be able to do that more easily, like it is the case with various NGOs working with Ukraine,” Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė told.
In early June, the Lithuanian government rejected a proposal by Vytautas Mitalas, a vice speaker of the Seimas representing the liberal Freedom Party, and nearly 30 other lawmakers to allow citizens and businesses to voluntarily support national defence by making monthly or one-off donations.
The Finance Ministry said at the time that the government would propose its own measures to allow companies and individuals to make voluntary and regular donations to the national defence system.
Skaistė also pointed out at the time that the military already had the status of a beneficiary and could accept donations, adding that the Finance and Defence Ministries were considering setting up a special web page to provide information on the income of the planned Defence Fund and the possibilities for citizens to donate to the national defence system.
Only around 7,000 euros were donated for defence last year. Also, some 268,000 euros from the 2023 income tax was allocated to the Lithuanian armed forces.
