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The Government proposes addenda to the Laws on RA Budgetary System and on Treasury System.

On September 5, the initiative, presented by the RA Deputy Minister of Finance Armen Hayrapetyan, was debated in the first reading at the sitting of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, which was presided over by the Committee Chair Gevorg Papoyan.

The package proposes to legislatively establish legal bases for creating a stabilization account of the budgetary system and to regulate the processes of its management, replenishment and use, to authorize the Government to define the procedure for replenishment and use of the funds of the stabilization account.

It was noted that a sub-account of stabilization funds will be opened in the treasury single account in the name of the state authorized body in order to support the implementation of management policies of the fiscal and government debt.

According to the Deputy Minister, it is proposed in the Law on Budgetary System to set the target average level of the funds of the stabilization account, which is calculated as the average daily balance of the working days of the given year, and which should be found in the budget message of the Government of the given year within the range of one to two percent of the Gross Domestic Product predicted for the given year.

According to the rationale for the initiative, many countries have established stabilization accounts or cash buffers, which are the mechanism of the fiscal policy aimed at saving funds during good economic times and using those funds during economic downturn. International experience shows that the presence of a cash buffer or stabilization account is an accepted practice in the field of state budget implementation and government cash flow management, which is also an important tool for mitigating the impact of possible economic shocks.

The Expertise and Analytical Department of the National Assembly presented observations and proposals related to the package. According to the key rapporteur, they will be taken into account from the first to the second reading.

The Committee endorsed the initiative.