Wednesday, November 13 2019 15:45

ArmInfo. The Prosperous Armenia Party(PAP) will vote against the draft budget for 2020. PAP MP Mikayel Melkumyan announced this on November 13 at a press  conference.  According to him, the budget for next year, in fact, is  not "revolutionary", and cannot ensure the implementation of the  announced economic revolution. He reminded that the PAP criticized  the five-year program of the Government of the Republic of Armenia  critically in February, voting in the end against it.  Melkumyan  noted that the draft budget for next year only deepened the party's  fears.

In particular, he criticized the planned GDP growth of 4.9%, noting  that these indicators can be regarded as a regression. In addition,  the policy was puzzled by the predicted agricultural growth of only  0.5%, as well as a decrease in projected tax revenues from the  current 9% to 6%.

Melkumyan drew attention to the fact that in 2019, government  expenditures in the amount of 221 billion drams were planned;  however, as of November 1, only 89 billion drams were spent. <This is  explained by the fact that in the planned tenders for the  construction of roads and reservoirs there are no new participants,  and some <old> criminal cases have been instituted. But if we have a  favorable investment climate, then why there are no investors?>, he  noted. The MP critically assessed the fact that, in the light of the  above, the draft budget for next year, state expenditures are planned  at the level of 359 billion drams, noting that the available funds  could be invested in various business sectors. It should be noted  that the nominal GDP of Armenia in 2020, according to the draft  budget for next year, will increase by approximately 529 billion  drams - from 6.566.5 billion drams expected by the end of 2019 to  7.095.1 billion drams included in the document. As expected, the real  GDP index will reach 104.9%, against the forecasted by the end of the  current year of 106.3% and the actual for 2018 of 105.2%. The GDP  deflator will be 103%, against 102.9% for 2019 and the actual 102.5%  for 2018. Thus, according to the document, the state budget revenue  item will be 1,697,618,538.8 thousand drams (1.69 trillion drams or $  3,566 billion), the expenditure one - 1.880.186.389.8 thousand drams  (1,88 trillion drams or about $ 3.95 billion).  State-owned tax  revenues (tax revenues and state duties) are projected at  1.602.129.712.8 thousand drams (1.60 trillion drams or 94.4% of the  projected budget revenues) instead of the planned budget for 2019  1.401.875.600.6 thousand drams, and official grants are expected to  be 33.8 billion drams (against 39.5 billion drams for 2019), other  incomes - 61.7 billion drams (against 55.1 billion drams approved for  the current year). At the same time, in 2020, the share of tax  revenues by the state treasury will increase by 0.3 percentage points  compared to 2019 - up to 22.6%. State treasury revenues are planned  at the level of 44.6 billion drams, against 39.4 billion drams  approved for 2019 and actual 37.7 billion drams for 2018.