YEREVAN. - Growth of Armenia’s GDP will not necessarily result in the increase of taxes, Armenia’s Finance Minster Gagik Khachatryan said in the parliament today.

“The growth of Armenia’s GDP in the first six months of 2015 constituted 4,5%, being accompanied by merely 0,4% growth of tax returns. But this was backed by several reasons, namely the economic growth was related to the lower taxed sectors,” the Minister said.

The aforementioned sectors include agriculture, where small farmers are exempt from VAT, entertainment industry, taxed by fixed payments, as well as the private construction, which isn’t subject to taxation either.

According to Khachatryan, during the last ten years, the budget has increased from 505 billion to 1 trillion 130-140 billion AMD. Of course, attention should be paid to the fact that during the recent years the tax growth has almost twice exceeded the profit growth. But, in Khachatryan’s words, excessive roughness in collecting taxes is contraindicative, especially in the conditions of external economic tension.