ArmInfo. In 2022, the Armenian government plans to collect 262.8 billion drams more taxes than it expects by the end of 2021. Chairman of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of the Republic of Armenia Rustam Badasyan announced this on November 2 at the preliminary hearings of the state budget for 2022.
So, in the draft law of the state budget for 2022, the financial authorities, due to the expected economic growth in the amount of 7%, risked to assume that the tax collections of the state treasury will exceed both the established and adjusted upward indicator for the current year. So, in 2022, the revenues of the state treasury of Armenia, compared with the approved state budget for 2021, will grow by about 437 billion drams, or 28.9%. 94.7% of all state budget revenues (1 trillion 946.2 billion drams, 24.7% of GDP) will be provided by tax revenues, 1.8% by official grants and 3.2% by other revenues.
In absolute terms, tax collections will amount to 1 trillion 843.8 billion drams (up to 23.4% of GDP), instead of 1 trillion 581.0 billion drams (22.5%) expected by the end of 2021. At the same time, in 2021, tax revenues (tax collections and state duties) in the state budget were fixed at 1 trillion 440 billion 136 million 839.5 thousand drams. However, as Minister of Finance of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan said earlier, the financial authorities revised their expectations during the first half of the year - by about 80 billion drams, increasing the program indicator - up to 1 trillion 601 billion drams.
Thus, as Rustam Badasyan stated, the draft state budget in 2022 is planned to collect 262.8 billion drams, or 16.6% more than the expected 1 trillion 581.0 billion drams. In absolute terms, tax collections will grow by 0.9 percentage points - about 23.4% of GDP, instead of the expected 22.5% at the end of 2021.
As the chief tax officer pointed out, economic, legislative and administrative factors influence these indicators. So, at the rate of 0.4%, growth will be "promoted" by a decrease in the interest rate of income tax in 2022 by another percentage point - up to 20%, and an increase in excise tax and rates on targeted social payments. The administrative factor is estimated at 0.5 pp.
To recall, at the end of 2019, the Armenian government announced major changes in the RA Tax Code. So, from January 1, 2020, Armenia switched to a flat system of taxation of income, which, regardless of the size of wages, was set at 23%. From January 1, 2021, the income tax rate was 22%, from January 1, 2022 - 21%, and from 2023 - will decrease to 20%.
In parallel, the government has provided for a gradual return to the previous conditions of the mandatory pension system. So, from January 2021, employed citizens began to pay at a rate of 3.5%, from January 1, 2022 - 4.5%, and from January 1, 2023, they will pay all 5%. At the same time, a system of annual correction of the excise tax rate (by 4%) was introduced.
