CHANGES SHOULD BE MADE IN TAX AND BUDGETARY POLICY WITH AIM OF AVOIDING INFLATION RISKS
Noyan Tapan
M arch 4, 2009
YEREVAN, MARCH 4, NOYAN TAPAN. In order to avoid inflation risks
in case of a floating exchange rate, changes should be made in the
tax and budgetary policy. That is, as economist Andranik Tevanian
stated at the March 4 press conference, it is necessary to change the
structure of the budget, reducing both the revenues and expenditures by
20%. Besides, the economist proposed to withdraw cash registers from
use, introduce fixed payments, and only after ensuring a competition
field, to use cash registers again.
In his words, the bases of the financial crisis in Armenia were laid
in 2007 when the Republican Party of Armenia took the whole control
package from the National Assembly, changing the economic policy,
after which expenditures of the budget increased from 1.7 billion
USD to 2.5 billion USD. The next year the expenditures have amounted
to 3.1 billion USD, which is a heavier tax burden on businessmen,
especially on small and medium ones.
As a result of this policy, according to A. Tevanian, the small
and medium business has found itself in a hard situation in 2008,
and since the second half of 2008, there has been a decline in the
amount of remittances to Armenia, construction volumes, etc. "2009
will be a hard year for small and medium businessmen. The economic
crisis has no relation to it, this is a consequence of redistribution
of the economy," A. Tevanian underlined, adding that "there is also
a smell of criminals in the air".