On December 21, 2010 was held the meeting of the Georgian Government. The agenda included 40 items.
Before the meeting started, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Nika Gilauri, informed those in attendance about several issues. We present the Prime Minister's speech:
"Before we start the government meeting, I would like to give the public and members of the government two pieces of information. The first deals with refunding of surplus VAT payments. Exactly a year ago, it was the President's initiative to activate this process. It was the main topic of one of the government meetings of that time. I would like to give you some figures - the results of the last year and the positive changes that this initiative has brought about.
In 2008 and 2009, the total refunds amounted to GEL 118 million and GEL 137 million, respectively, and during 2010, a total of GEL 170 million was refunded. In sum, this has been done for 571 companies. This is the sum which the state returned quickly and in a timely manner to the private sector and the private sector put back into business, into the economy. These sums have caused even more positive changes in the economy. This is what I wanted to say about the initiative to refund VAT.
Another piece of information which I also want to give to the public is connected with VAT turnovers. As you know, VAT turnovers correlate most closely with GDP growth. Last week, we announced that the increase in GDP in the first three quarters was 6.5%. This is quite a high figure, which we didn't expect.
We expect that the annual increase will be higher than 6%. In connection with the increase in VAT, we have the figures of November. There is a 32% increase, which is one of the highest figures this year. We also have quite a high growth in the fourth quarter; the fourth quarter was also relatively good last year. This year, too, it is particularly good, and I hope that these figures will enable us to achieve a higher economic and GDP growth both this year and next."
Prime Minister's Press Service