YEREVAN, September 6. /ARKA/. Armenian authorities have collected a total of 567.2 billion drams in various taxes since the beginning of the year, finance minister Vatche Gabrielian said today.

According to him, the amount of taxes, duties and mandatory social payments totalled 552.1 billion drams, which he said is 4 billion drams more than projected. He added that in August the authorities collected by 390 million drams in taxes more than planned.

The minister said in the fourth quarter revenue collection rate will be higher as economic activity in that time span is usually higher.

“There is every reason to believe that our figures are realistic and will be met," the minister said.

The minister added also that the spending in the first eight months amounted to about 574.1 billion drams. In August it was about 70.2 billion drams.

"If this growth rate is maintained, the deficit will be lower than we have planned by tens of billions of drams.

The 2012 draft budget calls for 911.6 billion drams in revenues and 1.044.1 trillion drams in spending. The amount of revenue is projected to increase by 6.8% from last year’s budget (852.4 billion drams). The spending is expected to grow by 41.5 billion drams. -0-