"[A reduced VAT rate on fresh meat] could be possibly discussed in tandem with [next year's] budget, but I think that 2015 or 2016 could be the most realistic date for introducing it," he told the radio station Laisvoji Banga on Monday.
"The government's program provides for this reduced rate, but that does not mean it has to be put into place in 2014," Butkevičius said.
Reduced VAT rates currently apply to government-subsidized medicines, passenger transportation, newspapers and other periodicals, books, and non-periodical publications.
The Seimas last Thursday voted to keep reduced VAT rates on district heating and medicines in 2014, and to cut the VAT on hotel services in 2015. However, parliament did not back a proposal to introduce a reduced VAT rate on fresh frozen meat.
The standard VAT rate has been unchanged at 21 percent since the autumn of 2009.
