ArmInfo.In January-March 2024, state budget revenues amounted to 525 billion drams, against the adjusted 563.1 billion drams and the actual 483.6 billion drams for the same period in 2023. The level of implementation of the adjusted plan was 93.2%. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Finance of Armenia.
Compared to the same period last year, state budget revenues increased by 8.6% or about 41.4 billion drams.
Budget expenditures amounted to 525.9 billion drams (the program indicator for Q1 was revised to 637.5 billion drams). The level of implementation of the adjusted plan was 82.5%. Compared to the same period last year, expenses increased by 24.4% or 103.2 billion drams.
For January-March 2024, the state budget was executed with a deficit of 868.6 million drams compared to the planned deficit of 74.4 billion drams and a surplus of 60.9 billion drams for the same period last year. Thus, the level of implementation was 1.2%.
As noted in the Ministry of Finance's newsletter, the growth in state treasury revenues is largely due to an increase in tax revenues.
In particular, in Q1 2024, the RA state budget received 500.6 billion drams in tax revenues and state duties, which amounted to 92% of the program indicator for the first quarter. Compared to the same period in 2023, tax revenues and state duties increased by 8.5% or about 39.3 billion drams, which is mainly due to an increase in revenues from income tax, profit tax and social contributions. 32.8% of tax revenues and state duties of the reporting period were provided by val ue added tax - 164.3 billion drams (versus 165.6 billion drams). Compared to the same period of the previous year, the decrease in VAT revenues resulted from a decrease in income from goods imported into the Republic of Armenia and an increase in income from the turnover of goods and services produced in the Republic of Armenia. 6% of tax revenues and state duties received by the state budget were provided by the excise tax - 30.1 billion drams (32.5 billion drams in 2023). Compared to the same period of the previous year, the decrease was the result of a decrease in revenues from sub-excise goods imported into the Republic of Armenia and an increase in revenues from sub-excise goods produced in the republic.
30.1% of tax revenues from the state budget and state duties n Q1 2024, were provided by income tax. Income tax revenues, comparable to last year's figure, amount to 134.1 billion drams, or 0.9% (1.2 billion drams) more than in the first quarter of last year. Through income tax, the budget received 50.8 billion drams or 10.1% of tax revenues of the state treasury, instead of 39 billion drams or 8.5% for last year. As for turnover tax, 15.1 billion drams or 3% of all revenues were entered into the budget, compared to 13 billion drams and 2.8% of the previous year.
During the reporting period, participants in the funded pension component of the pension system transferred social payments in the amount of 25.7 billion drams to the state budget, providing 5.1% of tax revenues and state duties and exceeding the figure for the same period last year by 20.3% or more 4.3 billion drams The increase was mainly due to an increase in the number of participants. During the reporting period, 3.7% of taxes and fees of the state budget were generated from other taxes in the amount of 18.4 billion drams. In particular, 11.1 billion drams amounted to stamp duties (to the National Foundation for Servicemen Insurance), 4.1 billion drams were paid by the customs authorities of the Republic of Armenia for goods imported by international postal or courier items from countries outside the EAEU, or as accompanying cargo, 1.9 billion drams amounted to mandatory fees for the use of radio frequencies and 1.1 billion drams - road tax. Compared to the first quarter of the previous year, the actual indicator of other taxes increased by 5.5% or 969.4 million drams, which was mainly formed as a result of an increase in the unified customs duty and stamp duty and a decrease in mandatory fees for the use of radio frequencies and fines for violation of tax legislation. In Q1 2024, 14.9 billion drams of state duty was sent to the state budget, which is 105.4% of the quarterly plan. 46.8% of state taxes are fees collected for the issuance of licenses, patents (permits) for activities subject to licensing or having permits, which exceeded the quarterly program indicator by 10.2%, amounting to about 7.0 billion drams. 4.7 billion drams of this amount were collected in the field of food trade and games through lotteries, games with winnings and coin and (or) banknote machines, which exceeded the quarterly program indicator by 45%. The increase in the latter (2.4-fold or 2.7 billion drams) is mainly due to an increase of 18.7% or 2.4 billion drams in state tax revenues compared to the first quarter of last year. The fee charged for other services and activities determined by law amounted to 4.6 billion drams, amounting to 31% of the state duty and exceeding the quarterly program figure by 13.4%.
In Q1 2024, 535.5 million drams of official grants were received, which is 21.4% of the planned revenues in the first quarter. Funds are provided within the framework of targeted programs, the implementation of which determines the specified indicator. In particular, 193.5 million drams (37.6% of the planned amount) was provided by the Global Fund, 103.9 million drams (27.9% of the planned amount) - the Eurasian Development Bank, 83.3 million drams (128.1% of the planned amount) - German government's Development Investment Fund and European Investment Bank, 36 million drams (40.7% of the planned amount) from the USA, 11.2 million drams (2% of the planned amount) within the framework of grant programs supported by the European Union. A grant in the amount of 107.6 million drams was received from the EU Horizon 2020 within the framework of the Programme for Research and Innovation , which was credited to the extra- budgetary account of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Armenia. Official grants received by the state budget in January-March compared to the same period last year decreased by 44.8% or 434.4 million drams.
Other revenues of the RA state budget for the reporting period amounted to 23.9 billion drams, exceeding the planned figure by 45.6%. This is mainly due to the excess of the quarterly program of interest payments received from the use of temporarily free budget funds in banks and other financial institutions, sanctions applied by executive and judicial authorities for offenses, and revenues from the supply of goods and services and investments made in the capital of legal entities. Compared to the same period last year, other income increased by 11.9% or 2.5 billion drams, which is mainly due to an increase in income from sanctions applied by executive and judicial authorities for offenses, as well as dividends from investments made in the capital of legal entities persons essence.
