Yerevan/Mediamax/. Former Foreign Minister of Armenia, Head of “Civilitas” Foundation Vardan Oskanyan stated that as a result of incomplete tax collection, Armenia’s state budget annually losses over 190bln AMD.

Mediamax reports that Vardan Oskanyan said this in an interview, spread by the Foundation.

“According to international financial institutions, a country like Armenia should have a tax collection rate of around 22 percent, we’re actually collecting only 17 percent of GDP.  The five percent difference means 193 billion Dram less in taxes, less in the state budget then we could have had. Our entire defense budget is less than that amount. That’s exactly the amount we spend on social security”, the Head of the Foundation stated.

Former Foreign Minister of Armenia expressed concern in connection with economic situation of the country.

 “Poverty is up, unemployment is up, the national debt has tripled. The budget deficit has tripled. The standard of living has gone down. The 15 percent drop in GDP of 2009 was a great blow to the economy and one from which we don’t seem to know how to recover. In the best case scenario, if we double the 2.4 percent growth we saw in 2010, and we double it this year, then double it again next year, by the presidential elections of 2013, real GDP will be lower than it was in 2008.  This would be a serious cause for concern, even if there were a plan for how to improve on this. But there isn’t a plan”, Vardan Oskanyan stated.