A senior Estonian parliamentary official dismissed over an error in gambling legislation is set to challenge the decision.
 

Key Points

Piia Schults, a long-serving parliamentary official, was dismissed over a drafting error in the Gambling Tax Bill

She plans to challenge the dismissal in court, and Members of the Parliament are preparing a signature campaign to support her reinstatement

The error temporarily exempted online casinos from taxation
 

Piia Schults, a long-serving adviser at the Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee, was dismissed following a drafting error in the Gambling Tax Bill and comments she made to the media.

The former adviser said she is in contact with a lawyer who is preparing a course of action. She is more likely to take the case to court rather than to a Labour Dispute Committee.

The dismissal came as a surprise to the official, who had worked at the Parliament’s Chancellery for more than 30 years without any prior criticism.

Schults stated: “Every year I have written in my performance review that I want to do something a little better the following year. I have been rewarded, including last year.”

The adviser was criticised for remarks made in an interview with the local newspaper Eesti Ekspress.

In the interview, she stated: “A law is not like a poem or a newspaper article, where it does not matter if a word is wrong.”

Schults indicated that she felt compelled to respond publicly after statements from senior officials that she believed were inaccurate.

When asked how much of a role the legislative error played in her dismissal compared with her comments to the journalist, Schults said: “My understanding was that it played a very large role, perhaps the main one. Reputational damage was the main argument.”

Members of the Parliament are preparing a signature campaign to support her reinstatement.

Opposition members called the dismissal a “disgrace,” while experts warn that poorly explained decisions like this could further undermine public trust in Parliament.

A clerical error in the amendments to the Gambling Tax Law mistakenly exempted online casinos from tax obligations starting at the beginning of this year. Lawmakers have since corrected this issue by amending the law, and the new provisions took effect at the beginning of this month.

Consequently, the Estonian Government is projected to lose between €3.5m ($4.06m) - €4m in gambling tax revenue this year due to the error. In the meantime, online gambling operators have voluntarily donated over €1.4m to the Ministry of Finance.

 

 

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