Thursday, April 26 2018 13:58

ArmInfo. In the economic sphere of Armenia there are very trivial decisions and there are some new ideas. This was stated in an interview with RBC by the leader of  the "Make a step" movement, opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan, answering  a question about the programs of political and economic reforms.

"The trivial decision is that there should not be any monopolies in  Armenia at all, because 20,000 items of products are imported [to  Armenia] by a very small number of businessmen." In fact, it is  forbidden to do this for others. "Carrefour is one of the largest  companies in the sugar trade. But in fact, Carrefour is prohibited  from importing sugar to Armenia, they need to be allowed to do this  and others, too, and we will definitely do it, and we will also  reform the trading system so as to practically destroy the shadow  economy, "he said.

At the same time Pashinyan stated that in Russia, for example, there  are bonus cards when you buy something in stores and some percentage  of purchases remains on the balance of this card. According to him,  they want to make a single bonus system in the payment system of  Armenia - in taxis, shops, and services. "A certain percentage of  annual purchases will be accumulated in your open bank account, which  you can pick up whenever you want, so that the buyer is interested in  registering transactions." The tax authorities will register these  transactions and, accordingly, take a duty from them that for a year  this would lead to almost a 30 percent increase in the budget, which  means higher wages, pensions, and so on, " explained the opposition  MP.

Touching on Armenia's dependence on Russian business, in particular,  the provision by Gazprom Gazprom's subsidiary Gazprom of supplying  and selling natural gas in the domestic market of the country and the  possibilities to reduce this dependence, Pashinyan stressed that  first of all it is necessary to look at how the price for gas is  formed in the Armenian domestic market, because on the border the  Russian gas is really quite cheap. "When it comes to people, the  price doubles, and it's a very doubtful fact, we will work to  understand why this happens, and I hope we will have some  opportunities to reduce the price on the domestic market," Pashiyan  said.

Speaking about what needs to be rectified in the Eurasian Economic  Union, the deputy stated that the Organization has a lot of problems.  At the same time he expressed the hope that they will calmly and  patiently discuss these problems and there will be no crises in this  area.

To comment on what he says without specifics, Pashinyan said: "Yes,  because this is a very sensitive topic, and we must be very careful."

At the same time, Pashinyan stressed that they never said that  Armenia should leave the CSTO. "We said that Armenia should  understand what our strategic partners have to do with us and what  specific commitments we have for them, because there is a lot of  confusion in this sphere." We believe the requirements should be  specified and mutual obligations, too, "Pashinyan said.