Armenian government pursuing restrained fiscal policy: Prime minister
10.10.2011,
20:25
The Armenian government is pursuing a restrained fiscal policy, prime minister Tigran Sarkisian said at a recurrent meeting of the National Competitiveness Fund of Armenia.
YEREVAN, October 10. / ARKA /. The Armenian government is pursuing a restrained fiscal policy, prime minister Tigran Sarkisian said at a recurrent meeting of the National Competitiveness Fund of Armenia. The prime minister is chairman of its Board of Trustees. He said the government is collecting more taxes than projected.
According to him taxes are collected with ‘arithmetic precision’ in accordance with the timetable. He said also the government saved 50 billion drams in spending.
"The rules of our conduct line in 2012 will be determined by several factors. The external debt of our country is 40% of the GDP. It grew because we needed to implement the projected spending and preserve GDP growth. In 2012, as well as in 2013 and 2014 the budget deficit should not exceed 3%,’ he said.
He said under this scenario the projected economic expansion for 2012 is 4.2%. According to Sarkisian, the growth is expected to continue in industry, agriculture and services. Sarkisian added that the government has planned to increase tax collection by 100 billion drams in 2012.
"This is a serious challenge and to achieve the projected goal apart from improved administration we must also broaden the tax base. We are already developing new bills aimed to identify the size of profits in different areas. This will enable us to increase next years by 10% social security benefits, pensions, and introduce social benefits for civil servants", he said.
The draft budget for 20102 approved by the Cabinet in late September calls for 910 billion drams in revenues and 1.042.5 trillion drams in spending. The projected deficit is 132.5 billion drams. The amount of revenue is projected to increase by 6.8% from this year’s budget (852.4 billion drams). The spending is expected to grow by 41.5 billion drams. M.M. -0- ($ 1-375.1 drams).-0-
According to him taxes are collected with ‘arithmetic precision’ in accordance with the timetable. He said also the government saved 50 billion drams in spending.
"The rules of our conduct line in 2012 will be determined by several factors. The external debt of our country is 40% of the GDP. It grew because we needed to implement the projected spending and preserve GDP growth. In 2012, as well as in 2013 and 2014 the budget deficit should not exceed 3%,’ he said.
He said under this scenario the projected economic expansion for 2012 is 4.2%. According to Sarkisian, the growth is expected to continue in industry, agriculture and services. Sarkisian added that the government has planned to increase tax collection by 100 billion drams in 2012.
"This is a serious challenge and to achieve the projected goal apart from improved administration we must also broaden the tax base. We are already developing new bills aimed to identify the size of profits in different areas. This will enable us to increase next years by 10% social security benefits, pensions, and introduce social benefits for civil servants", he said.
The draft budget for 20102 approved by the Cabinet in late September calls for 910 billion drams in revenues and 1.042.5 trillion drams in spending. The projected deficit is 132.5 billion drams. The amount of revenue is projected to increase by 6.8% from this year’s budget (852.4 billion drams). The spending is expected to grow by 41.5 billion drams. M.M. -0- ($ 1-375.1 drams).-0-
