“The capacity of the taxes paid by the first one thousand biggest taxpayers has been reduced by 0,7%, which means that the budget is being filled up by ordinary people,” said former prime minister Hrant Bagratyan to the A1+ news agency concerning the list of the biggest 1000 taxpayers published by the state committee incomes recently. He assures that the large companies are getting larger through the time but they pay less tax. Bagratyan believes the 0,7% is a very small rate for one year and it is a drastic step in favor of the large businesses, as a result of which the ordinary citizens are the ones who suffer. Concerning the high level of inflation (the inflation of the consumer products basket in January 2011 compared to January 2010 was 10.6%). Concerning this issue Bagratyan said, “The high level of inflation is in the interests of the state, but the Constitution does not allow that.” Bagratyan says that the justifications they bring saying that the inflation is connected with the growth of prices in the world are not true. “The state is not able to and does not want to think of developing the country’s economy,” said the former PM and added that this year the only way of providing financial inflow in the budget will be inflation.
