State Budget Deficit Increased: Armlur

The spending of the Republic of Armenia's state budget from January to November has surpassed revenues, resulting in a budget deficit of approximately 62.7 billion drams. However, this deficit is smaller than the one recorded during the same period last year, which amounted to 86.3 billion drams, according to Armlur.

In this regard, the budget execution significantly deviates from the plan, as the deficit was expected to amount to 196.2 billion drams by January-September (according to the adjusted plan, it was 248.4 billion drams). Moreover, these discrepancies are primarily due to underperformance in capital expenditures, which is particularly concerning from the perspective of economic developments.

The budget anticipates an increase in revenues, which is mainly attributed to the increase in local taxes and local charges, including hikes in their rates and an anticipated increase in property tax revenues. The 2024 budget plans revenues of 124.6 billion drams, which is 19.5 billion drams or 18.6% higher than what was projected in the approved budget for 2023.

Notably, the initially approved revenue of 105.1 billion drams for the 2023 budget was later raised by 13.1%. This means that compared to the adjusted plan for 2023, the expected growth in total revenues for the 2024 budget is 4.9% or 5.8 billion drams.

It is puzzling that despite the sharp increase in parking fees, the 2024 budget anticipates a surprisingly modest increase in the fees for parking vehicles. It seems that this has been either overlooked in the budget or considered a calculated move to avoid allegations of primarily fiscal benefit from raising rates. Alternatively, there may be a belief that the sharp rate hike will lead to a nearly equivalent sharp decrease in parked vehicles.

It is also possible that if the actual revenues exceed the planned amount due to this increase in fees, the authorities intend to present this as yet another “unprecedented” achievement in revenue collection.

The city government justifies the necessity of sharply increasing parking rates on the urgent need to