Vahagn Khachatryan, economist, member of Armenian National Congress, is convinced that the “Budget -2018” is a dangerous financial document.
“The authors are really professionals, but there is something dangerous: nobody listens to them. There is no political decision to change the model of economic development”, he said referring to the next year’s draft state budget.
According to the economist, in the context of “Budget -2018” there is an important issue: the government’s program, which is aimed at saving the economy, does not exist yet. “The biggest disadvantage of the budget is that neither last year nor this year the current state of the economy is presented in detail. It is not justified why we are poor, why people emigrate, why education and healthcare costs are reduced, why science funding does not increase, etc”.
Vahagn Khachatryan underscored that “Budget -2018” has no business talking about, “There is also no word about what is needed to attract investment.The tax field should be light, this issue is not presented, and there is no image of the tax field”.
According to the expert, bigger volumes of emigration are expected in 2018 due to a number of problems, “Increased excise on compressed gas and diesel fuel does not substantiate how they will affect the gas price. The increase in cigarette excise is not justified. Salaries and pensions do not rise too. Vahagn Khachatryan also mentioned that the government has not yet answered why 394 billion drams are not collected under the law. “For years, due to certain circumstances, privileges have been granted to agriculture, education, healthcare, and some other areas. How long can this go on? It does not contribute to raising product competitiveness”.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
