YEREVAN, May 5. /ARKA/. Tax collection rate in Armenia continues to improve, finance minister Vardan Aramyan told journalists on Thursday. According to him, there are positive trends in tax collection, in particular, in the first quarter more taxes were collected than projected.

"This allowed us to adjust the state budget program and increase capital expenditures by 50 billion drams," Aramyan said. He noted, however, that such plans contain a number of risks, one of which stems from the inability to ensure constant growth.

"However, April figures show that tax collection rate continues to improve, in particular, in April some 107.5 billion drams were collected against 97 billion drams in April 2016, which was 7 billion drams higher than we had projected," Aramyan said.

According to the ministry of finance, in the first two months of 2017 the authorities brought to net 15 billion drams from the shadow sector. In the first quarter of 2017, the tax collection rate increased by 11.5 billion drams.

The 2017 budget calls for 1 trillion 135 billion drams in revenue. In January the tax officers collected 80.6 billion drams, up from the projected 77.6 billion drams. In February they collected 83.6 billion drams instead of the envisaged 80 billion drams. ($ 1 - 484.77 drams). -0-