Tuesday, October 15 2019 13:43

ArmInfo.Today, there is a  need for legislative regulation of the proportions of budget  financing priorities. This was announced on October 15 at a meeting  of the Permanent Parliamentary Commission on Financial-Credit and  Budgetary Issues during the discussion of the report on the execution  of the state budget for the first half of 2019, Armenian Minister of  Finance Atom Dzhandzhugazyan.

According to him, the use of this mechanism will avoid artificial  restrictions. The Minister expressed hope that this initiative will  be discussed in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia  during the consideration of the 2020 draft state budget. Moreover, as  the head of the Ministry of Finance noted, it fits into the system of  program budgeting and will allow solving the problem of more  efficient use of the state treasury expense. Dzhandzhugazyan recalled  that the program budgeting system began to be applied in 2018,  however, it will get practical application in the draft state budget  of 2020. He also said that in the first half of this year, Armenia's  GDP amounted to 2 trillion. 724 billion drams, which is 10% more than  in the same period last year. According to the minister, state  revenues amounted to 758.5 billion drams, of which 72 billion drams  were own revenues. Moreover, the share of tax revenues amounted to  713 billion drams.  In comparison with the forecasted share of tax  revenues for the first half of the year, the indicator amounted to  55.3 billion drams. "Compared to the previous year, tax revenues in  the first half of the year increased by 24.5%>," the head of the  Ministry of Finance explained, adding that 6.7 million drams were  received in the country in the form of official grants.

Note that according to the budget, in 2019, in the context of  economic growth of 4.9% and a growth in gross fixed capital formation  of 6.1%, the projected increase in exports of goods and services to  GDP will be 41% instead of 38.7% in 2018. According to the results of  2019, per capita GDP in Armenia is expected to reach $ 4,604 instead  of $ 4,280 a year earlier. The nominal GDP of Armenia in 2019,  according to the draft budget, will grow by about 560 billion - from  6.193.0 billion drams ($ 12,752.6 million) in 2018 to 6,756.2 billion  drams ($ 13,717.5 million) laid down in the project. GDP growth is  expected to be provided by a 0.5% increase in net indirect taxes (in  2018, 0.6%), 2.5% will provide growth in the services sector (4% this  year), construction will grow by 0 , 4% (0.6% in 2018), the  agricultural sector - 0.7% (0.6% in 2018), industry with an increase  of 0.8%. The 2019 consolidated budget in terms of revenue is  estimated at 1.533.6 billion drams (without revenue from inter-budget  transfers) instead of 1.343.5 billion drams in 2018, from the line of  expenditures - 1.685.2 billion drams (without revenue from  inter-budget transfers), against 1.500.5 billion drams in 2018, the  deficit is about 151.6 billion drams or 2.2% of GDP.