GOVERNMENT APPROVES 2008 BUDGET
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 2 2007
The Armenian government approved on Tuesday its draft budget for next
year which calls for a more than 40 percent surge in state expenditures
and revenues.
Under the budget bill to be submitted to the National Assembly on
Wednesday, government spending in 2008 will total 820.8 billion drams
($2.45 billion), compared with 584 billion drams projected for this
year. State revenues are projected to jump by 44 percent to 744.7
billion drams.
The proposed sharp increase is partly due to the fact that the
government will for the first time include social security taxes
and subsidies to the state pension fund into its budget. Even so,
the government will have to ensure a further major increase in its
tax revenues in order to meet the record-high budgetary targets. A
government statement quoted Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian as saying
that this will require "serious efforts" from tax authorities and
other government agencies.
The statement said education and healthcare would be key beneficiaries
of increased public spending. In particular, the education sector
would receive 103.7 billion in funding, up by almost 20 percent from
2007. Spending on healthcare would similarly rise by 24 percent to
54.6 billion drams. This would in turn mean a corresponding increase
in the salaries of public sector teachers and medical personnel.
There was no word on Armenia’s defense budget for 2008. Sarkisian
said last month that the Armenian military will get approximately $400
million, meaning that it will remain the single largest recipient of
public funds. That would represent a 33 percent increase, in dollar
terms, from the 2007 level.