Today, Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan had a concluding speech at the National Assembly speaking about the 2016 draft state budget of the Republic of Armenia.
Firstly, he emphasized that the activeness of the MPs was unprecedented. Gagik Khachatryan also touched upon several raised issues.
He spoke about the rumors of closing small and medium-sized enterprises. The minister was sure that SMEs were not closing, just the opposite, they were opening, and in order to prove his statement Mr. Khachatryan represented the statistics: “On November 1, 2015 the number of turnover taxpayers by SMEs registered in the Tax Authority was 67830, whereas in 2014 the number of the subjects was 58163, which means that we have a 16.6 per cent growth.”
According to the minister this growth is based on the activities of the executive: “Taking into consideration the unfavorable economic state of the country, the government has taken an unprecedented step by raising the tax level twice, so that SMEs have possibility to function in more favorable conditions in the coming years. And the raising of the text level has led to an increase of the enterprises working in the field, but there is also a concern, as such an experience you will not find in the world.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Khachatryan noted that some enterprises were closing down, and this was not due to the tax and legal factors, and the reasons were to be sought in regulations, irrational activities, as well as to take into account the fact of not being able to compete, etc.
In addition, the minister also made special emphasis on the issue of the increasing of service machines. He mentioned that the example of Denmark had been presented from the NA podium, but the comparison with this country was not appropriate at all.
“An attempt is made to draw parallels with a country that by running the policy of reducing the number of service cars, as well as discouraging car usage is trying to show and to prove to the whole Europe that in this way it is possible to fight against environmental problems, showing that it is the first country in the world that cares about the environment.”
Thoroughly presenting the issue he noted: “In Denmark, the costs related to the state employees going to and returning from a workplace up to 24 kilometers are deduced from the income tax, in other cases compensation measures are applied. It is not taken into account that a lot of money is spent on social guarantees of state employees and on health insurance in that country.”
Turning to the neighboring countries the minister represented the image of service cars in Georgia: “During two years 5 million US dollars have been spent on purchasing service cars, and the ministers, as well as the department heads have cars. Georgia spends much more money on the use of service vehicles than our country.”
However, he stressed that the government recognizes the unnecessary costs should be reduced: “We speak not only about the service cars, but also about the costs that are less effective. We are taking steps, let me bring the example of the Ministry of Finance, we have reduced 44 cars, and will reduce 14 more.”
