WHAT DOES THE EX-PRESIDENT WANT TO DO?
S. Beglaryan
Hayots Ashkharh, Armenia
Sept 25 2007
That Didn’t Manage To Do In Good Time
Hence, ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan is fully determined to return
to politics and help the country overcome the "crises". So, it would
be helpful for all of us one more time to recall the economic situation
of the country during his years of power.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s years of power first of all coincided with
the energy crises in the country. After closing the Nuclear Power
Plant by the initiative of Armenian Pan National Movement Armenia
immediately appeared in energy crises and the state was simply unable
to supply the structures of social and strategic significance with
energy. The population used to be provided with energy only for 2
hours per day. And this was in case when the significant part of the
country’s financial and economic means were directed to the import
of energy resources.
It is not accidental that later those responsible for the sphere of
energy announced that the quantity of the energy produced during those
years was equal to the one produced in 1990, when not only did the
country have enough but also surpass of energy. A question appears
here – where did this energy disappear?
During the years of energy crises Armenia used to pay Turkmenistan
with almost the whole production of those years, for gas import.
Moreover they even opened the state treasury. But even after this
Armenia ran into debt to this country and was obliged to draft
credit-agreement.
It was during Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s power that privatization was
established in the country, whereas the thing was about voucher
privatization. After a very short period of time vouchers lost their
traditional values. Dozens of people purchased them with very cheap
prices and managed to privatize 60-70% of the state property with very
cheap prices. Making no demands from the proprietor the government
prepared good ground for free activity, something that served as a
reason for unemployment and abrupt fall of economy.
Because of such a non-prospective privatization many factories were
closed. They were gradually robbed and decomposed and, in many cases
even exported to Iran as scrap metal.
The situation of the agricultural sphere was worst. The whole
mechanical system was decayed due to which we still face problems.
If during the first years of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s power Armenia was
in war, which created additional problems in the economic processes,
the same can’t be said about the years following 1994.
Before 1997, economic progress in Armenia didn’t exceed 7%. It
fluctuated within the limits of 6%. Moreover, in 1997 it made up
only 3,3%. It’s worth mentioning that beginning from 2000 up to the
present days two-digit economic growth has been recorded in Armenia.
The state budget and the country’s social life were also linked with
the economic situation. The budget used to increase with "turtle
steps". To clarify this, we must mention that in 1996, as compared
to the previous year, the state budget increased only by 3,8 billion
drams, which was equal to 8 million dollars. Again we must mention
that in 2007, as compared to the previous year the tax income of the
state budget increased by 300 dollars.
But even in the before mentioned conditions the governments formed
by Levon Ter-Petrosyan didn’t manage to execute the budget, due to
which the country ran into enormous debts. The state couldn’t even
carry out the so-called protected expenses. For example the health
system was financed by 60% at best.
The salary delays were considered normal. People could get their
salaries only after 2-3 months. The same was with the pensions.
The ex-President that speaks about corruption must remember that in
1996 the state budget was 127,5 billion drams or 250 million dollars,
from which only 69 billion was collected at the expense of internal
tax income. That is to say, in order to make the expenses of state
priority, instead of reducing shadow economy and increasing the
collective sum of the internal tax income, credit means were involved
that year-by-year added to the debts of our country. The fact that
the biggest amount of external debts appeared during those years
testifies to this.
Unwilling or unable to collect internal tax income the state chose
the path of increasing the country’s external debt. To say that the
economy had lack of means is not proper. Otherwise, when today’s
President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan was appointed as Prime Minister
the internal tax income couldn’t increase by 33 billion dollars,
from 69 billion to get to 102 billion drams.
But they remained in shadow, as a consequence of which during
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s presidency almost each state budget was not
executed, year-by-year adding to the debts of the country to different
organizations and populations.