ArmInfo. For 9 months of 2017, the State Revenue Committee (ARC) of Armenia provided tax revenues of 860.5 billion drams, including VAT refunds. On the tax side, growth was 6.7%, customs - 18.3%. This was stated to journalists by the head of the department Vardan Harutyunyan on October 4, summing up the results of the 9-month activity.
In general, as noted by Harutyunyan, the budgeted indicator on taxes will be provided. "We are not lagging behind the planned indicators - by results of 9 months we provided tax revenues in the amount needed," he said. As a result, the growth of state budget revenues for 9 months of this year. compared with the same period in 2016 amounted to more than 74 billion drams or 9.4%. 640.7 billion drams were provided from the taxation, and 219.7 billion from the customs authorities.
As the head of the department pointed out, that the growth of revenues was provided due to the increase in the efficiency of tax administration, in the conditions of reducing inspections. So, since September 2016, the number of control measures carried out by tax authorities has decreased by 47.8%. At the same time, as the head of the KGD stated, due to the increase in the efficiency of tax administration, as of October 1, 2017, tax overpayments decreased by 7.2 billion drams. The index of unpaid taxes and other mandatory payments to the state budget of Armenia by the taxpayers for the reporting period decreased by 6.5 billion drams.
The day before, from the rostrum of the Armenian parliament, its vice-speaker from the Tsarukyan bloc said.> Mikayel Melkumian said that in order to fulfill the budget of 2017 the Armenian government by the end of the year, for the next 4 months, it should collect 424 bln drams in taxes, while statistics show that on average over the past months of this year, about 90 billion drams were collected monthly. According to him, today we can say that the government is unlikely to be able to fulfill the budget of 2017. "In order to implement the main financial document for 2017, the government under the guise of" optimization "is going to seriously cut jobs in the public sector, which in turn will lead to increased poverty and emigration," the deputy said. According to him, the way out of this situation is either to ensure real economic growth, or to reduce the shadow, otherwise the country will face serious inflation, which has already begun.
Meanwhile, on September 28, at a government meeting, referring to media publications, according to which the Cabinet discusses the probability of sequestering the state budget-2017, Armenian Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan stated: "I officially declare that there is nothing like that." We have a very clear ideology that is fixed in the the draft budget for 2017 and this course will continue also in the budget for 2018. " The idea, as the minister explained, is to exercise some restraint in planning current expenditures, placing emphasis on capital expenditures, which promise to turn into a multiplier effect in the country's economy.
It should be noted that the Budget-2017 provides nominal GDP growth of 5% or 5405 bln drams. Total revenues, according to the budget of this year, amount to 1 trillion. 210 billion drams (the ratio of income to GDP - 22.4%), of which taxes - 1 trillion. 135 billion drams. Expenses will amount to 1 trillion. 360 billion drams (the ratio of expenditures to GDP is 25.2%), and the deficit is 150 billion drams (the deficit-to-GDP ratio is 2.8%).