Arthur Vanetsyan: Mashadyan himself stated earlier about the  existence of agreements between the leadership of SRC and large  economic entities

ArmInfo. The National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia, in the fight against corruption and  economic crimes, will continue to work on uncovering illegal schemes that were actively used by large economic entities to avoid paying taxes. Artur Vanetsyan, director of the National Security Service, told ArmInfo correspondent.

According to Vanetsyan, the National Security Service did not hurry  at all in its assessments, stating that large trading networks,  "taking advantage of the opportunity given by the former leadership  of the RA State Revenue Committee, without any legal grounds,  arbitrarily, illegally," underpaid taxes to the state budget.  At one  time, as the head of the National Security Service pointed out, the  deputy head of SRC Mashadyan himself stated about the existence of  agreements between the leadership of the State Revenue Committee and  large economic entities. Then he gave up his words. But the NSS will  continue to work in this case.

It was in the framework of the fight against corruption and economic  crimes, on May 30, that the National Security Service stated that it  disclosed the long-run scheme developed by the largest Armenian  economic entities, which was used for the application of the  fictitious individual entrepreneurs (IPs), established on the names  of hundreds of citizens, . In response, on May 31, the first deputy  chairman of the KGD (since May 24 of this year) Rafik Mashadyan, who  in the past was the head of the tax inspection for large taxpayers of  the Ministry of Finance, said that the scheme disclosed by the  National Security Service was not a secret to them. According to him,  despite the fact that the KGD had information that more than one  economic entity is operating at one point, the tax authorities did  not take administrative measures to prove that the given outlet  belongs to the same economic entity, since "according to the law  there was nothing prohibitive in the fact that two economic entities  operate at one point." When asked whether the crime consisted in the  fact that instead of 20% they paid only 2%, the representative of the  SRC answered: "I do not give legal assessments, such assessments are  given by law enforcement officers."

Nevertheless, on May 28 a meeting with representatives of large  networks took place at the tax and customs committee during which,  according to official information of the SRC, network companies were  warned that early agreements with the former government are no longer  valid and they need to return to the legal field.

Already on June 4 in the parliament in a conversation with reporters  the head of the National Security Service stated that Mashadyan today  or tomorrow will be invited to the NSS to give explanations. "He said  that there was an agreement, he should come and explain what is going  on," said Arthur Vanetsyan. He also added that those officials with  whose knowledge this was committed will be invited to give  explanations, and if they cannot explain their actions, they will be  brought to trial as defendants.

Vahram Baghdasaryan, head of the parliamentary faction of the  Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), earlier confirmed that this scheme  was discussed and implemented with the knowledge of the former  authorities, adding that it was done, allegedly, for the sake of  farmers.

It is noteworthy that a week earlier, after interrogation in the  National Security Service, Rafik Mashadyan in a conversation with  journalists categorically stated that there were no agreements  between the SRC and the organizations giving the informal right to  pay taxes under the latter. Simply, as Mashadyan pointed out, SRC  "there was no proper administration of those economic entities that  operated on one site through two or more organizations."