Today Hrant Bagratyan in the permanent commissions’ session of the NA asked the deputy minister Pavel Safaryan what was the state budget increase if there actually was any. Bagratyan mentioned there was 150 billion drams increase externally, but it cannot be noticed anywhere. He also criticized the Premier Minister for calling the budget a “social” one, when the social expenditures were decreased.
The deputy minister answered that the increase in the budget is “obvious” and if the state budget was 1 trillion 44 billion drams, this year’s state budget has increased with 107 billion drams, tax incomes – with 116 billion drams and the budget deficit has decreased with 51 billion drams which meant the government had the possibility to additionally distribute another 64 billion drams. Bagratyan mentioned there was no wish to tax the wealthy and the little increase was aimed at the covering the budget deficit and that there were structural mistakes to be considered instead of covering the budget deficit. According to Bagratyan the government hurries in making decisions.
