ArmInfo.Now is the best time to implement reform programs. On June 5, speaking at the National Assembly of Armenia remotely, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, said about the preliminary results of the implementation of the state budget of the country in 2019.
In general, as the head of government noted, last year turned out to be historic in terms of the feasibility of the revenues of the state treasury. In particular, it was possible to collect an additional 104 billion drams, of which 62 billion drams were allocated to the state budget, and the remaining 42 billion drams - to return to business entities VAT debts accumulated as of January 1, 2017. An unprecedented, according to Nikol Pashinyan, GDP growth of 7.6% was also recorded. The ratio of taxes to GDP also changed, which amounted to 22.35%, which is 1.6% more than planned and 1.4% more than the level of 2018. The Prime Minister of Armenia stated that if 2018 was a historical year from a political point of view, then 2019 - from an economic one.
The Prime Minister called the fight against coronavirus historic. In his opinion, a good opportunity for reform has now appeared. Of course, COVID-19 will have an impact on economic growth in 2020. At the same time, he urged not to jump to conclusions about what the current year will be like. "The coronavirus is just beginning, and it is not yet known how long it will continue. It's too early to make calculations, but I'm sure that the crisis is a good opportunity to carry out reforms and reassess the ongoing processes," the head of government said. In particular, he said, it is important to overestimate the relationship between the state system and the citizen. These relations, he said, must be perceived in the context of the homeland and statehood, with the very perception of the concept of "homeland."
"Do we want to have a state that, according to history textbooks, qualifies as a mechanism based on violence, or we should talk about equal relationships. The laws that are passed are needed to keep everything under control, or to interact with each other? This is a conceptual question, "the head of government noted, adding that as a result of the pandemic, the process of re-evaluating relations between the state system and the individual will take place. Citizens of the country elect a parliament, parliament forms a government and passes laws, and the government implements adopted laws. In this process, the issue of the state budget is of key importance. There is an old perception of the state budget, when people believed that the authorities accepted it, and then they steal the money earned by the people, and there is a new perception according to which the state budget is the pocket of the state, which is formed by joint efforts to address the needs of every citizen.
The Head of Government emphasized that there will be new substantial changes in the state revenue system, a process the beginning of which was given by the resignation of Chairman of the RA State Revenue Committee David Ananyan. Nikol Pashinyan expressed his gratitude to David Ananyan for the work done, expressing the hope that these changes will deepen and become more complex. To recall, yesterday the head of the RA State Revenue Committee David Ananyan stated that he had submitted a letter of resignation to the Prime Minister without indicating its reasons.
