1 / 20

On October 25, at the joint sitting of the NA Standing Committees in parliament, during the debate of the RA draft state budget for 2022, the Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan referred to the principles of the development of the draft, the main macroeconomic indicators, the budget shortage, the external and internal debt, the formation of revenues, the tax and customs policy, the structure of budget expenditures and the expenditure policy.

According to the rapporteur, it is the first time that the budget for 2022 is completely formed on the basis of the Government Programme for 2021-2026.

As Tigran Khachatryan presented, the state debt management should be with such approaches that are safe from a macroeconomic point of view. He has underlined that it is planned to continuously reduce the state debt, bringing it to the framework set by law.

“The year 2020, depending on the impact of both the pandemic and the military actions, led to the fact that we had 63.5% state debt towards GDP. The rules set by the law require that the Government presents such budget framework to the NA during the next 5 years that will guarantee the return of the debt, the limit not exceeding 60%,” Tigran Khachatryan said.

Tigran Khachatryan answered to the deputies’ questions which were referred to the consumer prices and the growth of the average salary.

The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Nerses Yeritsyan presented the conclusion of the Central Bank on the RA draft law on the RA State Budget for 2022.

As a result of the economic recovery and continuous improvement of tax administration, as well as the implementation of the legislative reforms, a significant increase of tax-GDP indicator of 0.9% is expected, in conditions of which, the revenues of the state budget will have restraining effect on aggregate demand.

The rapporteur has underlined that the measures envisaged by the debating draft law will create favorable conditions for rising the GDP potential level and ensuring long-term sustainable growth.

Nerses Yeritsyan also presented the draft Administrative Expenditures and Capital Investments of the RA Central Bank for 2022 to the parliamentarians for debate. According to the rapporteur, a significant growth has been planned in the programme of capital expenditures compared with the previous year, it will be 7,3 bln AMD. The estimate of administrative expenditures of the Central Bank for 2022 has been planned 8,5 bln AMD, 13% growth has been envisaged compared with the previous year.