Epress.am News from Armenia
It’s good that stabilizing inflation up to 4%, as well as 4.4% economic growth, is in the Armenian government’s plans, but it’s not enough to solve the country’s problems, former chair of Armenia’s Central Bank, current Armenian National Congress (HAK) representative Bagrat Asatryan told journalists in Yerevan today.
Speaking about the planned increase of 100 billion Armenian drams ($263.9 million USD) in tax revenue in the 2012 state budget, Asatryan said that’s no small change.
“100 billion drams is not a small figure, but collecting it is not so impossible — taking into account that in terms of tax collection, it’s not a big problem. 55–60 of the 100 [billion] depends on the increase in revenue, on inflation. A portion of the other 40 billion drams falls on excise and other types of taxes,” he said.
In the opinion of the former Central Bank chair, this budget has one purpose, to collect fiscal money, and this is the first thing that should go. In Asatryan’s opinion, Armenia will live worse in 2012 than it did in 2011.
Comparing the country with neighboring Georgia, Asatryan said Georgia was worse off in terms of economic problems, but in the last 4–5 years, it has registered much progress.