YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA National Assembly on November 15 completed the 1st stage of discussing the 2007 draft state budget, interrupting the dicsussion for at least 4 days. In the next 24 hours, the deputies, groups, factions and standing committees will have the opportunity to present their proposals about the draft. The final version of the draft revised based on the proposals received after preliminary discussions of the draft in the standing committees will be submitted to the parliament for approval. In his summarizing speech, the principal speaker - RA Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatrian noted that the government has already received over 390 proposals, and extra financing of 14.5 bln drams is needed to satisfy these proposals. "The proposals, which are consistent with the priorities of the governmental program in 2007 and will ensure the envisaged indices will be accepted. It does not mean that other proposals are not important, that these problems do not exist," the minister said. According to him, the government "does not want to increase the scope of expenditures so as not to pulverize those resources, whose concentration will help achieve the envisaged goals."

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