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