ArmInfo. The revenues of the state budget of Armenia for the first quarter of 2021 exceeded by more than 20 billion drams. This was stated by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan at a meeting of the Government of the Republic of Armenia on April 1.
According to him, the volume of trade turnover in January-March of this year increased by more than 8% compared to the same period in 2020, while March recorded an increase of more than 20% compared to March of last year. "The indicators are quite good for the post-war, crisis year," Pashinyan said, thanking taxpayers and tax officials.
Thus, according to the chairman of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia, Edward Hovhannisyan, in March of this year alone, compared to March of 2020, the number of transactions on cash receipts and settlement documents increased by more than 8 million 640 thousand units or by 122 billion drams. In the quarterly context, the difference in sales turnover amounted to 116.8 million drams (6.2 million more transactions). As a result, the actual fees of the state treasury for the first quarter reached 332.9 billion drams, instead of the planned 305 billion drams. As the chief tax officer explained, taking into account that 5.6 billion drams of the specified amount are receipts from excise payments, the actual over-fulfillment amounted to 22.3 billion drams.
First Deputy Finance Minister Karen Brutyan, in turn, noted that based on the existing circumstances, the financial department expects to exceed the annual tax collection plan by about 40 billion drams. "With this in mind, the Ministry of Finance will make a proposal to adjust the figure recorded in the state budget from 1 trillion 440 billion drams to 1 trillion 480 billion drams," Brutyan said.
It should be noted that according to the approved state budget for 2021, the revenues of the state treasury in the current year are programmed in the amount of 23.6% of GDP and amount to 1,509. 5 billion drams, of which tax revenues and state duties amount to 1,440. 1 billion drams. The share of the latter in GDP is 22.5%. The deficit of the state budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2021 is programmed at the level of 5.3% of GDP and is 341.4 billion drams, of which 138.7 billion drams are internal sources and 202.7 billion drams are external sources. Based on the projected revenue level of the state budget of the Republic of Armenia in the amount of 23.6% of GDP and based on the possibility of financing the deficit in the amount of 5.3% of GDP, the Government of the Republic of Armenia plans to provide expenditures in the amount of 1.850.9 billion drams or 28.9% of GDP in 2021. Current expenditures will amount to AMD 1,634. 6 billion, or 25.6% of GDP. Expenditures on operations with non-financial assets are projected at 216.3 billion drams, or 3.4% of GDP.