Armenian government approves package of protocol decisions on
redistribution of 2009 state budget
YEREVAN, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. At the March 12 sitting, the Armenian
government approved the package of protocol decisions on redistribution
of the 2009 state budget. The RA minister of finance Tigran Davtian
said at a briefing after the sitting that the purpose of adopting the
package is to give a more adequate response to the nonpositive
developments in Armenia as a result of the global economic crisis.
In his words, the global economy has entered a stage of decline, and
naturally, it has had a negative impact on Armenia’s economy. T.
Davtian said that the government has tools for an adequate response to
the events. Based on that, the government is adopting the quarterly
principles of budget planning. "The budget legislation is quite
flexible and provides good opportunities to respond quickly to some or
another change in the situation," the minister of finance underlined.
T. Davtian noted that the social expenditures: benefits, pensions,
salaries, which make up 25% of the state budget, are not subject to
revision. These expenditures will be incurred by the envisaged
schedule. The most important socioeconomic programs envisaged by the
budget will not be subjected to redistribution either.
The expenditures considered as not urgent, in particular the purchase
of property and vehicles, will be transferred from the 1st quarter to
the 4th one. Expenses on the state government system and business trips
will be reduced. "At this moment it is difficult to predict how the
global developments will proceed and, depanding on that, what dynamics
our economy will have until late 2009. So we transfer the expenditures
based on collection of risky revenues to the end of the year," T.
Davtian stated, adding the step of revising the expenditures will
enable to make the budget more predictable. "This decision is related
to redistribution of expenses rather than to their reduction," the
minister stressed.
At the same time it was mentioned that the risk amount regarding
revenues is assessed at about 131 billion drams.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
