These days the National Assembly standing commissions are discussing the draft budget of 2008. After such discussions the draft is to be included in the NA agenda and discussed (voted for) in the NA session. As usual, the RA budget, after being developed to the parliament, is “given” a specific name. For example, last year they named the budget as “social” since the share of social expenses was big in it. The social cost sharing makes a big part this year too (about 40%). However, the budget of 2008 was not called as “social”. It was given another name, which sounds better – “2,5 billion budget”. Last summer, when the authorities said that the budget would make 2,5 billion dollar, people did not realize that there would be elections soon and that is the reason why the authorities had spoken about such huge sum. Other opinions were spoken too, according to which dollar would be devaluated till 2008 so much that the budget might make not 2,5, but 3 billion. Notwithstanding, the budget of 2008 is much bigger than the existing budget in drams too. In case in the budget of 2007 the share of compulsory social security payments made 458,8 billion dram, in 2008 it makes 595 billion dram. This money shall be collected by the taxation and customs bodies. According to the RA minister of finances and economy Vardan Khachatryan, about 60% of 595 billion dram or about 360 billion is to be collected by the Taxation state service (TSS). The amount to be collected by the taxation service in the budget of this year makes 278,7 billion dram. In 2008 the taxations service will have to collect more 85 billion dram or 261 million dollar, which makes 35%. To note, this year the taxation and customs bodies have to collect this much amount jointly. There are rumors that there is tension in the taxation body connected with the amounts they have to collect for 2008. Besides that, the taxation service has to also provide the amounts envisaged by the budget for this year. There have been reports in Media that the former head of the TSS, Felix Tsolakyan, resigned from his position as he understood that it was impossible to collect such money. According to the same information, he had collected more money than he had to during the first period of six month and would have problems in the next period. It is clear that the oligarchs and many businesses operating under the umbrella of the authorities pay taxes according to certain proportions and it is impossible to demand more from them. As for the small and medium businesses, they are not able to pay such taxes. Yesterday we talked to TSS deputy head Armen Alaverdyan on this topic, who participated in the discussions of the budget in the parliament yesterday. We tried to find out whether there is tension connected with providing bigger share of tax incomes in the coming year.
– Do you think 2,5 billion dollar budget is possible? Will the Taxation service be able to provide the tax incomes envisaged by the budget of 2008?
– We read news and we know what they write. The budget of 2008 is subject to fulfillment. The administrative activities, legal amendments and the expected economic growth digits let us assure that the tax income part of the budget of 2008 can be fulfilled.
– What are the resources on which this tax collection share will be imposed and which economic fields will have to pay more?
– Over 542 billion will be provided due to economic growth, and the other part is expected to be provided as a result of administrative processes, reformations and legal changes.
– How much money will be transferred to the state budget of 2008 as a result of cutting down the share of shadow economy?
– The administrative reforms contain also reduction of shadowed circulation.
– Will such increase of tax obligations create tension in the taxation bodies?
– There has always been tension in the taxation bodies since we have always fulfilled the requirement of the budget in a timely manner so that to make the corresponding expenses in time too. Notwithstanding the ongoing political processes the state budget is a law and the taxation bodies are responsible to fulfill that law in a due and timely manner.
– There are rumors that the former head of the TSS, Felix Tsolakyan collected more incomes than needed during the previous period and now there are problems for the future collections.
– It is not right, I don’t agree with that point. During the first period 45-46% of the scheduled tax incomes was collected, for the second period it is scheduled to collect 54-55%. As the share of one percent is big, it makes about 2,5-2,8 billion dram, thus it is natural that it will be harder to pursue the goal of the second period.