Yesterday Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and the minister of finances Tigran Davtyan presented to the NA the state budget draft 2010. And so the expenditure section of the budget is planned 859 billion AMD. This is less by 75 billion AMD compared to the planned amount and is 21 billion less than the expected expenses.
The 2009 budget was planned 945 billion AMD or 3 billion USD according to the USD rate of the beginning of the year. But today it is forecast that the budget will be fulfilled by 880 billion AMD and that is 5 billion less than planned. It is planned that last year 676 billion AMD revenue must be collected. It means that the budget will have 183 billion deficit instead of the planned 40 billion. In 2009 taxes in the amount of 533 billion were collected. It is less by 60 billion than the expected amount for the current year. In a word, the 2010 budget also anticipates some sad numbers for the budget. On the other hand, the amounts planned for the next year are also predicted and show some unfavorable data. The taxes/GDP ratio is planned 1.% for the next year. To our surprise the government predicts a 1.2% growth for the next year. Let us remember that for this year the government was predicting 9% growth but we had a double slump – 18.5% for the 9 months. And on this terrible background we may only admire the adventurousness of our government by the fact that they risk to forecast growth for the coming year. At any rate, these are the main numbers of this year and the next one, which T. Sargsyan had a chance to present. Yesterday Sargsyan also told the steps undertaken by the government to withstand the crisis. He told how much loan they received from Russia and international organizations and where these loans were directed. According to his words these funds were directed to “structure-creating construction” and mineral sectors. They helped the medium and small-size businesses, installed CMUs, gave bonuses to people, etc. According to him, the basis of this year’s activity where anti-crisis events having the main target the ensuring of macroeconomic and financial stability which were presented to the NA in November of the past year. Steps have been undertaken for the development of important infrastructures in respect of ensuring activity of regional importance. The prime minister said that in conditions of crisis the most justified investments are considered the sums invested in the development of infrastructures. From Armenian infrastructures the prime minister singled out the construction of the new energy unit. With the results of the tender, "Warley parsons" company has won and must head the construction works for the organization of which about 400,000 USD have been spent. The NA has recently approved the law on construction of new energy unit. Tigran Sargsyan said this year road of 365 km total length will be exploited. With their volume these works exceed the volume of the road construction of the past year: in 2008 163 km of roads were reconstructed. About 14 billion AMD work have been carried out in the water supply system, about 300 km of inner network has been reconstructed. The projecting works of North-South transport corridor are in process. The Asian Development Bank has already approved the decision of providing 500 million USD to Armenia with that aim, 60 million out of which has been provided. Concrete steps have been undertaken toward the construction of Armenia-Iran railway. T. Sargsyan said that a responsible company for implementing control over the construction works has been created, budget provisions were made so that the company start working. During the running year All-Armenian Bank has been established which will start working from the next year and in near future its head must be elected. The business program of the bank has already been developed. The prime minister also said that in spite of the situation created in the country as a result of the global crisis and the 18.5 economic decline, in the "Doing Business" rating Armenia has improved its position with seven points being ranked the 43rd from the past 50th place. However it is hard not to remember the words of the managing director of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo, who made a statement 2 weeks ago, according to which Armenia will make all the efforts to ensure the prevention of oligopoly in the country. Perhaps in this context the prime minister declared that the government has also taken lessons from the crisis. The first lesson is that the economy lacks diversification and money. The prime minister has also understood that there are oligopolies in the counties and a low competition. But even today there are many people, who not only don’t believe in the efficiency of the budget but also consider it a declarative document. “The draft budget of 2010 with its philosophy and ideology doesn’t have anything to do with meeting the challenges of the country. The challenges, which are stipulated by the global crisis, the necessity of recovering the ill economy and participation in regional projects, are not reflected in the budget. Besides that, none of the planned items of draft budget 2009 was realized in the forecast form,” expressed his concerns about the draft budget an ARF MP Artsvik Minasyan. He is confused about the intention of the government to speak about the efficiency of governance, development of the public service system and not take any step to raise salaries or pensions or other social payments. As a response Davtyan said that this year by not decreasing these expenses the government has stimulated the increase of the efficiency of the state system and the retail business. “If the government thinks that it is possible to increase efficiency by not decently paying the state employee it minimum doesn’t have enough knowledge of the techniques of efficiency of state governance. Or the anti-crisis program includes a very important point – activate consumption which can become a normal ground for economy activation. How is this possible?” asked Minasyan. At any rate, the budget draft is already submitted and most probably it will be adopted with tiny changes after some discussions in the NA.