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Who's Nervous About The Budget Of $2.5 Billion

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  • Who's Nervous About The Budget Of $2.5 Billion

    WHO'S NERVOUS ABOUT THE BUDGET OF $2.5 BILLION
    S. Beglaryan

    Hayots Ashkharh, Armenia
    Sept 28 2007

    The Swindlers are in Their Element

    As we know, the Government is to submit next year's draft budget to
    the National Assembly by October 1. According to the Prime Minister's
    statement, it will make up USD 2.5 billion. This means that the budget
    expenditure will make up AMD 850 billion.

    For some reason, the whole community supporting the Armenian
    pan-National Movement is nervous about the above-mentioned fact.

    Instead of being happy that together with the significant increase of
    the budget its expenditure will grow too and, hence, there will be more
    resources directed at meeting the social needs of the much-suffered
    people, they are trying their best to prove that this kind of budget
    increase is impossible.

    Naturally, they "prove" it through distorting the facts and figures
    and resorting to the elementary fraud they are so keen on.

    Leaving aside unnecessary emotions, let's look upon the real situation
    and estimate to what extent it is possible to have a budget of $
    2.5 billion. And perhaps that time it will become clear is actually
    to learn "adding and subtracting a few figures".

    That Armenia will have a budget of USD 2.5 billion next year is beyond
    doubt. That in terms of dollars this sum will be 8 times more than the
    budget of 1997 when R. Kochryan took up the post of Prime Minister
    is a simple arithmetic. But, for some reason, there are people who
    are trying to argue this.

    Whereas, the reality is that Armenia's budget was really poor that
    year and especially during the years preceding it. In order to make
    it clear what we are speaking about, let's remind you, for instance,
    that Armenia's budget expenditure was AMD 125.5 billion or more than
    USD 309 billion as of 1995; in 1996 this sum was USD 17.5 billion.

    That's to say, the budget expenditure increased by no more than AMD
    2 billion. Moreover, if we consider that there was a devaluation of
    Dram during those years it will turn out that the 1995-1996 budget
    expenditures did not increase at all; on the contrary, the decreased
    by AMD 2 million.

    And we emphasize on purpose that this was happening after the end of
    the military operations, in peaceful conditions.

    The reason was that the Government was unable to execute budgets that
    recorded almost no growth. They constantly remained under-fulfilled
    and were transferred from one year to another.

    On the other hand, it is necessary to remind about the structure of
    the budgets of those years. For instance, the internal incomes of
    the 1995 State Budget were AMD 55.4, with budget expenditures making
    up AMD 125 million. The tax incomes of the 1996 Budget made up AMD 69
    billion, the envisaged expenses being AMD 127.5 billion. That's to say,
    the official transfers which were nothing more than financial support
    provided by other countries and loan proceeds, had a predominant role
    in the State Budget. It isn't, perhaps, accidental that Armenia's
    external debts were speedily increasing during those years.

    Today those swindlers insist that R. Kocharyan received a budget
    of USD 420 million vs. 300 million. Well, the swindlers who have
    specialized in "adding and subtracting a few figures" have to be
    reminded of the reality.

    The 1997 State Budget of Armenia had expenses of AMD 148 billion or
    around USD 300 million. The Budget was adopted in 1996 when R.

    Kocharyan was not a Prime Minister yet. Let's remind you that he was
    appointed to the post in March 1997. In the meantime, the highest
    rates of income collection were recorded in Armenia during those
    years. The tax debits increased by around 33 per cent or AMD 33
    million, having reached to AMD 102 billion instead of the former 69
    billion. For comparison, let's mention that during the preceding year
    the tax income growth did not exceed AMD 13.7 billion.

    It is not accidental that in 1998 the State Budget expenditures
    reached AMD 420 million at the expense of increasing the internal
    incomes. This was the first budget submitted to the National Assembly
    by Prime Minister R. Kocharyan.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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