“Recently, the Ministry of Finance has become an institution giving real and realistic assessment within the authorities,” such an opinion was expressed by the Armenian National Congress (ANC) member and economist Vahagn Khachatryan in an interview with “Aravot”, referring to the Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan’s statement in an interview with one of the media on December 3 that “It would be an achievement for Armenia if next year the situation of 2015 is maintained.” Vahagn Khachatryan understands Finance Minister’s honest confession in a sense.
The economist says that the honesty is due to the fact that the whole financial responsibility lies on the Ministry of Finance. “Everyone calls them, trouble them saying, give money, and they have to say, this money is no longer available. I am aware that during one of the debates with the members of the government, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan is trying to do the next good action at the expense of the state and instructed the Finance Minister to give an X amount for an X program. He was responded that there is no money. The Prime Minister was surprised and unexpected. He was told that there is no Prime Minister’s reserve fund, it’s over.
These amounts are exhausted with everybody in Armenia, where there is a reserve fund, the National Assembly, presidential, it is over. Listening to their assessments, I understand that the situation has been much deteriorated, otherwise, they would not tell that simply their opportunities have been eliminated.” Vahagn Khachatryan says the tax body of the mega-Ministry, everyone knows, at least, the entrepreneurs know very well, work, so to speak, by taking advance payments from the enterprises.
In other words, they compel businesses to pay taxes for the next months too. “The tax body is always working in the form of advance payments. We will soon see how much money they have collected in the form of advance payments, which means that they have collected money already on the account of the year 2016-2017. Given this situation that they are talking of keeping the situation of 2015 for the coming year, we should be pleased, I agree with Gagik Khachatryan.”
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ANC member assured that the RA authorities may also lose the most important resource: the opportunity of taking external debt. “It should be 5.8 billion dollars, even if there is a lender, we cannot take it. The time will come that the loan givers will think as we used to say, “measure 1000 times and cut once” principle, in other words, they will think whether this country is worth giving money. Because the absolute size of the debt is not important, there is also a ratio, solvency, export-import difference, export size and so on.”
Note that one of the loan givers, for example, Country Director of the Asian Development Bank Resident Mission, David Dole, assured “Aravot” that Armenia is a reliable borrower. Dole, in particular, said, “We all need to give heed to the level of the debt, the 50 percent of the GDP-foreign debt ratio is the level that requires a special attention. It is highly important to know how it will be changed in the future, and it is necessary to be very careful about what new projects are added to the national debt. Today, the RA national debt is not in the range to be a matter of serious concern. But we want to do everything so that it does not reach the alarming range”.
In response to our citing, Vahagn Khachatryan said, “It is not so, it only seems.” To move Armenia’s economy from the standstill and to develop it, as a major project – Armenia-Iran railway, the RA authorities are long ago trying to convince that it is quite a realistic project. Incidentally, on 25 September 2015, the Minister of Economy Karen Chshmarityan, when presenting some details about the Prime Minister’s visit to China in an interview with the journalists assured that the Prime Minister of China had instructed relevant officials to coordinate the activities of Armenia-Iran railway project. “As for the financial component, a specific agreement will be reached with the Chinese after studying the feasibility and the profitability level of the project. The Chinese side is interested in the construction of the railway because the core focus of the project is to connect China with Europe.”
In this respect, Vahagn Khachatryan also presented a remarkable fact of the RA government’s failure – Armenia ousts from the Silk Road. According to the economist, Armenia-Iran railway, which was associated with the Silk Road, is unrealistic. Khachatryan said that yesterday the first train kicked off, which is China-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Europe route. “To the point, 8 days instead of 40 days. In other words, this railway worked. The 40-billion fund, which will serve and which was to restore and ensure the Silk Road worked. And our 3 neighbors are involved in this project. And we, as a priority, as an importance, do not exist anymore. In addition, Georgia is building a huge port in the coastal city of Anaklia, Georgia, with the capital of Chinese, where big ships can enter. This means that the Amsterdam-China route, which lasts 40 days, can last 6-7 days. The Armenia-Iran railway is not geographically realistic, it is technically quite complicated. Do you know what it means to build a railway in Syunik where the roads are with the difference of 400 up to 2000 meters elevation? As the former foreign minister has said, Armenia-Iran railway project is the bluff of the century, and I agree.”
Nelly BABAYAN
“Aravot” Daily
