GOVERNMENT SUBMITS FINAL VERSION OF 2008 DRAFT STATE BUDGET TO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR APPROVAL
Noyan Tapan
Nov 27 2007
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The 2008 draft state budget’s
discussion, which was interrupted on November 15, resumed at the
special session of the National Assembly (NA) invited on November 23
on the initiative of the Armenian government. According to the main
speaker – the RA minister of finance and economy Vardan Khachatrian,
the government received 331 proposals regarding the preliminary
version of the draft state budget, including 225 proposals from the
NA factions, 13 – from the NA standing committees, and 93 proposals –
from MPs. Proposals were mainly related to expenditures and envisaged
additional financing of 21.6 billion drams. The government considered
144 propsals or 43.5% of their number as acceptable.
Explanations were provided to 48 proposals, 139 proposals were
rejected. On its own intitiative, the government increased tax revenues
by 2 billion drams, as a result of which their ratio to GDP will make
17% against 16.9% in the preliminary version.
As a result, the government submitted the 2008 draft state budget
with the revenues of 746 bln drams, expenditures of 822 bln drams and
deficit of 76 bln drams to the National Assembly for approval. The
expenditures and revenues grew by 1.3 bln drams as compared with
the preliminary version of the draft. V. Khachatrian also said that
the settlement exchange rates of foreign currencies to be used in
budgetary functions were changed. In particular, the settlement
exchange rate of a US dollar was fixed at 325.16 drams instead of
the preliminary version of 336.48 drams, while that of a euro was
fixed at 469.76 drams instead of 461.15 drams. The money envisaged
for compensation of sums deposited with the former USSR savings bank
has been increased by 30% in the final version of the state budget
as compared with this year. 1.3 bln drams will be allocated from the
2008 state budget for this purpose.
The speaker of the RA National Assembly Tigran Torosian expressed
an opinion that "there cannot be any substantiation or approach for
voting against this budget, although some deputies will probably vote
against it".
The "Heritage" faction has already stated that it cannot vote fot
the presented draft state budget, which is risky in terms of its
execution and proposes temporary solutions to some social problems. The
"Orinats Yerkir" faction has stated that it will abstain from voting
because taking into account the gaps in the draft budget and the
unsolved problems, it cannot vote for it but at the same time it
cannot vote against a 65% increase in pensions and solution of some
social problems.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
