ArmInfo.On the May 8 press conference of RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, following the results of the annual activities of the head of the government, set a new level of accountability of the Cabinet, which should become a guide for all its members.
Nikol Pashinyan announced this on May 10 before the start of the next government meeting. According to the premier, the government should provide the public with 100 additional facts about the new Armenia. All booth members will be guided by the accountability criteria established at the press conference. That is, according to the results of the year, facts testifying to specific changes in the life of citizens will be made public, "Pashinyan said.
As the head of the government pointed out, at this stage, the number one task is to find effective ways to spend the generated funds of -62 billion drams of additional tax revenues of the state treasury, which, as expected, should come to the budget for the year. The prime minister recalled that a decision has already been made to spend about 30 billion AMD from them, and today we need to decide on the rest of the amount. Nikol Pashinyan also reminded that during the year construction work is planned to be unprecedented in recent years. The active stage, as he pointed out, starts in May. As the prime minister stressed, it is necessary to do everything possible to avoid a situation where at the end of the construction marriages will be revealed and the authorities will be forced to refuse to accept the work done. According to the head of government, for this, perhaps, we should think about more effective control mechanisms and measures of legal influence, up to the establishment of criminal liability.
To recall, on May 8, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the next - 5th meeting with journalists in a similar format, summing up his annual activity as head of government, announced the "100 facts about new Armenia."
In particular, Pashinyan said that during the year of activity of the new Cabinet a lot was done. So, taking into account tax revenues to the budget in the first quarter of this year, the government revised its expectations for tax revenues by the end of the year to 62 billion drams or $ 129 million. In addition, according to him, after the velvet revolution, the tax paid off over-pay obligations in the amount of 120 billion drams. That is, as the prime minister pointed out, the government returned more than $ 300 million to business. The VAT refund for the reporting period compared to the same period last year (May to May) turned out to be 19 billion drams more. Over the same period, cash checks were printed 82 million more, which is 35-40% higher than last year. According to the Prime Minister, during the reporting period, about 51,000 new jobs were registered. These are not only those that have emerged from the "shadow", but also new jobs. Due to the excess of tax revenues, it was possible to increase the expenditure items of the budget. In particular, from July 1, the salary for servicemen will be increased by 20-30%, and from September 1, teachers' salaries will be increased. Another 5.7 billion drams will be allocated to the provision of housing for servicemen.
As part of the reforms of the mandatory funded pension system, the salary of about 209 thousand citizens was raised, another 200 thousand will receive more after the entry into force of new regulations on income tax. At the end of 2018, as a result of the policy for the consolidation of public debt, the level of government debt decreased by 2.3 percentage points. In particular, according to the prime minister, the ratio of government debt to GDP by the end of 2018 was about 51%. In addition, in 2018, the road construction programs were exceeded by 60%, this year the volume of work will exceed the figures for the previous 9-10 years. In 2019, it is planned to repair interstate and republican roads with a length of 312 km. As part of the World Bank's loan program, the Lifeline Road Network Improvement Project, significant funds will be spent on the average repair of roads about 60 km long.