Yerevan Elders Council Approves 2011 Budget of the Capital

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: The last session of the 4th sitting of Yerevan Elders’ Council was held today. The session was chaired by Mayor of Yerevan Karen Karapetyan.

An official from the information and PR department of Yerevan Municipality told Armenpress that the agenda’s main issue was the approval of the 2011 Yerevan budget. The budget was approved unanimously. The project was initiated by Vahe Nikoyan, head of the municipality’s financial department.

At the suggestion of the ‘Prosperous Armenia’ faction, amendments were made to the council’s decision ‘On Defining Rates of Local Duties and Payments in the City of Yerevan’. The duties for permission on sale of cigarettes and alcohol were defined with the zone-principle.

The Mayor mentioned that the space of trade points will be taken into consideration in the future when defining the rate of the duties in order to exclude the possibility of defining the same duty for small booths and big supermarkets.

The 2011 development project of Yerevan was approved as a guide and it will be corrected next year. The Mayor underscored the importance of drafting a transport concept and improvement of environment for investments as a strategic direction.

The revenue of the 2011 budget of Yerevan is intended to make 56 billion 796 million AMD, and the expenses – 58 billion 296 million AMD: the deficit of 2 billion 500 million AMD will be financed with the free remainder of the beginning of the year.

In his speech of conclusion Karen Karapetyan mentioned that he expects support by the Elders’ Council for effecting reforms in the capital. ‘Yerevan is the only capital, where Christmas tourism is in a zero level. No any tourist wants to visit our capital in the New Year, as all the establishments of the capital are closed January 4-5.

There are standards of a tourists’ city and it is necessary to make Yerevan correspond to those standards,’ the Mayor said. Taking into consideration the prospective development project of Yerevan, the Municipality will present various packages of investment offers to entrepreneurs.