YEREVAN, April 4. /ARKA/. In the first quarter of 2019, Armenia’s tax officers collected 296.5 billion drams in revenue, David Ananyan, the head of the State Revenues Committee< told a news conference today.
He said the projected amount was 285.1 billion drams, but the actual collection amounted to 296.5 billion drams, by 11.4 billion drams or 4% more.
According to Ananyan, the initial expectations were 298.3 billion drams, but after specifying the methodology with the Ministry of Finance, it was decided not to calculate excise taxes as state budget revenue.
He said also the SRC separated tax and customs revenues. In the first quarter of 2019 tax collection amounted to 226.2 billion drams (an increase of 55.5 billion drams or 32.3% from the first quarter of 2018 ), customs duties – to 70.3 billion drams (an increase of 2.8 billion drams or 4.1%).
He also said that 26.4 billion drams were refunded to citizens against 19 billion drams in the first quarter of last year. Most of the refunds were the VAT money returned under the mortgage loan repayment program.
The 2019 budget calls for 1.5 trillion drams in revenues and 1.6 trillion drams in spending. The projected budget deficit is about 150 billion drams. Capital expenditures are expected to increase from 2.3% of GDP in 2018 to 3% in 2019. ($ 1 – 486.85 drams).