STATE BUDGET 2004 UNDER CONSIDERATION
Srbuhi Vanian.
Azat Artsakh Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
31 Aug 05
On August 29 the joint meeting of standing committees of the National
Assembly took place. The meeting was conducted by Vice Speaker Rudik
Hyusnunts.
Representatives of the government were invited to the meeting of
the standing committees. The report on the state budget of 2004
was presented at the meeting, which should have been discussed by
the previous parliament. The last meeting of the National Assembly
failed because there was no quorum. The NKR minister of economy and
finance presented in brief the performance of the state budget. He
mentioned that the budget receipts in 2004 were in surplus, totaling
4590191.2 thousand drams; the surplus was 990191.2 thousand drams. The
applications for financing expenditure were covered 100 per cent. GDP
totaled 42800000 thousand drams, increasing since the previous year
by 18.2 per cent. The social insurance tax collections were 95.2 per
cent. The return on tax was low for the part of land lease and rents
(63.1 per cent), and the total return on tax was 89.5 per cent. The
minister of finance informed that the plan of financing state budget
deficit was not implemented by 25 per cent and resulted in the failure
of the plan of deficit. By January 1st of the current year arrears
totaled 396188.3 thousand drams, increasing by 18.6 per cent since
the previous year. 98.9 per cent of the reserve funds were spent. The
chairman of the standing committee of finance, budget and economic
management Arayik Harutyunian gave a good evaluation of the budget
performance and mentioned that in future, apart from the report,
it will be necessary to present to the parliament a reference or
statement on the results of the social and economic programme. He
made observations on the scarcity of financial means directed at the
development of the economy, and mentioned that there is need for
greater investments in this sphere. A. Harutyunian also mentioned
that the government did not implement the agricultural programmes
adequately. “The state policy for irrigation systems needs to be
changed. It is necessary to supply money for implementation of definite
programmes instead of projections,” said the member of parliament in
answer to the minister of town planning B. Alakhverdian’ s comment on
the implementation of the programmes of improvement of the irrigation
systems. S. Tevossian said that the government is ready to provide
the parliament with additional information if necessary and discuss
their proposals and observations on different levels.