"LUYS" Foundation analyzed the 2025 vision of Yerevan city. the budget. 2025 In terms of budget revenues, the city authorities have largely relied on a new "fiscal assistant", the increase in public transport fares.
2024 The new property tax calculation methodology and the 2024 the sharp increase in parking fee rates from January 1. In 2025, a sharp increase in public transport fares will be added to them, at the expense of which it is expected to provide 21.3 billion drams of additional income, or almost a quarter of Yerevan's own income.
By the way, the budget's own revenues will grow less in absolute terms than only two of the types of revenues included in them: the amount of public transport fares due to their sharp increase and property taxes charged for real estate due to the use of a new property tax calculation methodology.
And the amount of the remaining types of incomes, which are own incomes, will decrease. That is, the budget incomes will increase, but this increase will not be mainly due to the increase in the efficiency of the work of the city authorities.
Capital costs will decrease. The planning process of a number of programs gives rise to serious concerns. is 41.9% less than the index. Capital expenses, which are the main part of that indicator, will also decrease by 24.4%.
It is not excluded that the reduction of the planned amount of capital expenditures is also due to their low performance in the previous few years and 9 months of the current year. In essence, the "sad tradition" formed over years of underperforming capital expenditures continues.
Instead, the reward fund will have an "impressive" growth in 2025, as in the previous 2 years. The funds allocated in the 2025 budget for awards, monetary incentives and special payments have been increased by 46.1% compared to 2024. By the way, no less "impressive" increases of that indicator were also recorded in the 2023 and 2024 budgets.
Over the last 3 years, the reward fund will grow more than 4.1 times. Funding for several projects of important importance in terms of urban development will decrease. In particular, for example, the amount planned for the "Repair and Maintenance of Asphalt-Concrete Cover" program is 28.2% less than the index of the 2024 annual adjusted plan.
It is also worth mentioning the "Rehabilitation and maintenance of bridge structures" program, for which 2024 is planned. 24.4% less than the budget index - 295.0 million drams, and only 12.7% of the specified annual plan was spent in 9 months.
Meanwhile, the realization of the goal of transportation unloading is undoubtedly also conditioned by the effective implementation of this program. It is true that the funds allocated for some primary programs will increase, but in previous years, very low performance was recorded for them, and it is hard to believe that in 2025 it will be possible to ensure the implementation of the mentioned increased costs.
Among such programs, we can single out the "Yerevan metro infrastructure construction (delegated powers)" program, under which (for the implementation of construction works of "Ajapnyak" metro station) in 2025. 2024 was allocated in the budget. an amount 2.4 times greater than the approved budget indicator, despite the fact that no expenses were incurred under the mentioned program in 9 months of the current year.
Instead, there are some programs for which the projected increase in spending is at least puzzling. Moreover, in the case of many of them, the growth is continuous.
A surprising example is the increase in allocations for the "Holiday-external decoration" program. This time, they significantly exceeded even last year's "record" and in 2025, compared to 2024, they will increase about 6 times.
Bearing in mind that they were also increased dramatically by 3.1 times in the 2024 budget, it turns out that they will increase by 18.6 times in 2 years. Full analysis here.
