At the National Assembly Sitting dated on December 6, the final discussion of the draft "On the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2018" was completed and it will be voted on December 8.
It should be noted that according to the draft budget, in 2018 the total revenues will make AMD 1 trillion 308 billion 285 million of which AMD 1 trillion 248 billion 500.0 million is planned for tax revenues and state duties. The expenditures will amount to AMD 1 trillion 465 billion 200 million, and the deficit is almost unchanged - AMD 156.9 billion. In the upcoming years, the Government of Armenia will highlight the following priorities of state budget expenditure:
- financial support for the reforms aimed at enhancing the efficiency and targeting of the activities of state bodies and making the services provided by them accessible to the public in specific branches of social sector (in particular, education, healthcare, social protection), as well as in public administration;
- financial support for the activities of defense and national security institutions in order to maintain the balance of opposing forces in Artsakh conflict, the territorial integrity of the republic and stability in the region;
- implementation of infrastructure rehabilitation and development programs in specific areas of economy (particularly agriculture, water economy, road economy and energy).
Summarizing the draft report, the RA Minister of Finance informed that the budget for 2018 is based on 6 pillars. The first pillar is macroeconomic stability, the basis of which is the stability of public debt. The second one, according to the Minister, is security. “You won’t find a country in the world where there are security risks and the private sector makes investment, creates jobs. Therefore, an important pillar is the increase in security costs that the Government has implemented”, - he mentioned. The third pillar is investments in infrastructures; the fourth - balanced revenue collection. According to Aramyan, if we want to improve the cumulative tax rate/GDP by 1 percentage point in two years, we must do it on a strictly balanced basis. The fifth pillar is the solution of social issues through economic activity and the sixth one, according to Aramyan, is a more purposeful implementation of expenditures.