David Ananyan: Tax administration alone is not enough for tax  officers to further collect taxes similar to the first year of  activity in post-revolutionary Armenia 

ArmInfo. Armenian tax  specialists are not able to annually ensure exceeded amount of tax  revenues to the state treasury through tax administration alone,  without corresponding economic growth. This was stated by the  Chairman of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia David  Ananyan on October 16 at a press conference answering the question of  ArmInfo.  According to Ananyan, the financial authorities hope to  collect about 200 billion drams more taxes in 2020 than in 2019 due  to the mining sector, industry and trade. At the same time, the chief  tax official urges not to hope that, according to the results of the  first half of 2020, as in 2019, the country's authorities will be  able to announce overfulfillment of tax collections of up to 62-63  billion drams.

According to Ananyan, the fact that in the first 6 months of this  year, Armenian tax specialists were able to ensure the annual growth  of tax revenues announced earlier by the Prime Minister at the level  of 62 billion drams, in fact at that time already exceeding the  projected figure by 62.7 billion drams was also the result of changes  in the behavior of taxpayer of post-revolutionary Armenia. Meanwhile,  it is difficult to permanently, annually ensure such behavior and, as  a result, the dynamics of tax collections. "If a person has decided  to go straight once, this does not mean that he will do that again.  Therefore, we are not able to provide in the future the volumes of  tax revenues removed from the shadows, similar to the first year of  activity of post-revolutionary Armenia," the head of SRC explained.

In the customs field also one should not expect an increase in  revenues. The boom in car imports recorded in 2019 due to the end of  the transition period for customs duties, including car imports,  comes to an end, he noted. Consequently, the flow will stop or  decrease and the Armenian budget will lose or not receive the amount  of 50-55 billion drams annually.

Thus, as the chief tax specialist emphasized, it is impossible to  generate taxes without economic growth.  "You can't always rely  solely on tax administration and the reduction of the" shadow  economy. "" The shadow "will exhaust its resources once, become"  manageble, "as it is practiced in developed countries," Ananyan said.

Accordingly, as the chief tax specialist pointed out, it is important  that tax growth be ensured by increasing economic power. Having laid  expectations in the draft budget for 2020 for increasing tax revenues  of the state treasury by about 200 billion drams, according to  Ananyan, the forecasts were based on achieving a nominal GDP of about  7 trillion (with an increase of about 529 billion). "If the forecasts  come true, then the economy and a culture of tax payments among  citizens will provide us with projected tax revenues of the state  treasury (tax revenues and state duty) of 1 trillion 602 billion  drams, against the budgeted for the year 2019 of 1 trillion 402  billion drams," David Ananyan concluded .