ArmInfo. The budget for 2018 is the budget for raising prices, "economist Vahagn Khachatryan said at a press conference on January 16. According to him, the sources of the current situation with the rise in prices for Armenia's consumption were traced back to the end of 2017, when the government of the republic presented the draft budget for 2018, announcing expectations for an increase in state budget revenues by 100 billion AMD.
According to him, as early as 2017, the country's expert community should have sounded the alarm, since it was already obvious then that the new government's Tax Code and budget for 2018 set the goal to increase budget revenues mainly by expanding the tax base. Thus, according to the expert, increasing the excise tax on diesel fuel, the Armenian government expects an additional 7.35 billion drams in the year 2018, gasoline will provide 1.93 billion AMD, and tobacco products 5.41 billion drams. "The government sets a single goal - to solve fiscal issues, Armenian parliamentarians knew about this, but we never saw any heated discussions," the expert said.
At the same time, as Vahagn Khachatryan stressed, inflation under the conditions of a civilized economy is manageable and, even in a number of cases, can stimulate its growth. However, in Armenia, in the presence of monopolies and the absence of equal competitive conditions, according to the expert, the global canons do not work. "The government only works to ensure budget revenues, and how, and at the expense of what - it does not matter, for this it is ready for anything," the economist said.
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