YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–During a briefing Wednesday–the parliamentary factions of Armenia expressed their opinions regarding the 2002 proposed budget.
According to Armen Rustamian–a member of Armenian Revolutionary Federation parliamentary faction–his party presented 26 budget proposals–16 of which were about the budget expenses–while the other 10 dealt with budget revenues.
The ARF proposed to increase family benefits by 600 million drams and to provide additional 50 million drams to the Armenian National TV Station in order to ensure its broadcasts throughout the entire territory of Armenia.
The ARF also proposed to secure funds for each third child born in a family as well as to increase the salary of teachers in bordering regions by 5000 drams.
As for the revenue section–the ARF proposed that a state tax increase and an anticipated growth to the simple tax collections–by outlining specific sources for that increase.
According to Rustamian–additional revenues can be expected after the dissolution of the Social Security State Fund–a step strongly supported by the ARF.
The ARF faction proposed to reassign the operations and responsibilities of the fund between the ministries of state revenue and social security.
Artsrun Aghajanian–a member of Country of Law Parliamentary faction–stated that the proposed budget lacked the necessary funds for the reconstruction of the earthquake zone. Aside from the earthquake zone funds–the party also proposed to provide additional funding for the development of bordering regions as well to increase fuel expenses directed toward heating schools in the winter.