Thursday, October 23 2014

 Instead of dealing with the treatment problems of the wounded Armenian soldiers, the government of Armenia offers to establish tax privileges for businessmen of the communities bordering to Azerbaijan, a member of the parliament from the opposition Armenian National Congress faction, Nikol Pashinyan, said in the parliament today, when commenting on the draft law "On exemption of business activity at the bordering communities of all types of taxes". 

Pashinyan recalled that the government should allocate funds from the state budget for treatment of the wounded soldiers. Moreover, another 2 million AMD should be allocated for the funeral of servicemen. And the residents of the bordering communities, that suffered because of the firings from the Azerbaijani side, should be provided with houses, he said and added that such minimal measures would show that the state protects such citizens, as they are at the front line of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The state budget should allocate maximum 2,5 billion AMD to settle these problems. This point should be fixed in the laws as the bordering communities are of the strategical significance for Armenia. 

However, he said that a draft law was submitted to the parliament which has nothing in common with residents of the bordering communities, which have been waiting for the targeted social aid from the state. "The government says that in case of adoption of the new law, the budget revenues will lose 2,5 billion AMD. It would be better to gather these funds and give them to residents of these communities, as they have been waiting just for that", - Pashinyan said and added that he will vote against the given draft law.

To recall, businessmen from Armenia's communities bordering on Azerbaijan may be exempted from all types of taxes. A package of eight relevant bills was considered by the Armenian Parliament on Tuesday.  Armenia's Deputy Finance Minister Vakhtang Mirumyan said that the bills are aimed at intensifying business activity in borderline communities.  According to the bills, companies in such communities should be exempted from VAT and profit tax, while individuals will enjoy VAT and income tax exceptions. Trade will be exempted from turnover tax.  No VAT will be charged from the import of equipment or raw materials for such communities.  Mirumyan said that the Government will provide 2,5 bln AMD for this purpose. On Jan 1 2015 VAT exemptions will take force for as many as 6,500 of the 9,500 business entities in borderline communities - mostly SMEs. On Jan 1 2016 they will be applied to entities whose annual turnover exceeds 500mln AMD. And on Jan 1 2017 they will cover all the other entities.  

The list of the bordering communities that will have privileges will be established by the government. As Mirumyan said, their number is fluctuating from 26 up to 47.