Babken Tunyan: No matter how much indirect pressure is exerted on us,  we will always be guided by the economic interests of Armenia

ArmInfo. MP Hayk Gevorgyan's statement that the Araratcement plant cost Gagik Tsarukyan $ 200,000 was at least unfair from the point of view of presenting facts. The  MP from the Prosperous Armenia faction Iveta Tonoyan stated this on  April 25 at a briefing in the National Assembly.

She noted that she now has in her hands the documents on the sale of  the company, which she can provide to journalists. "MP Gevorgyan  mentioned only the second paragraph, according to which $ 200,000 was  allocated for privatization. At the same time, the latter kept silent  about the fact that there is a third paragraph in the document,  followed by all other financial issues, in particular, the repayment  of the debt accumulated by the company 6 million 866 thousand  dollars, and so on. Thus, as you can see, in general, privatization  cost Tsarukyan more than $ 10 million. I am not talking about a  number of investment programs that will be implemented in the near  future, "Tonoyan said.

At the same time, the MP categorically disagreed with the fact that  the representatives of their faction stubbornly uphold the interests  of Tsarukyan. "There is nothing of the kind and it cannot be. We  always express our opinion on a particular issue, regardless of  whether it concerns representatives of our faction or not. We  carefully study and evaluate the draft laws, based on the interests  of our citizens. The whole thing is that in our country there is so  total unemployment, and the actions of the authorities can exacerbate  the situation. So, in this matter we are only interested in the  lagging rights of our citizens, "concluded Tonoyan.

In turn, the head of the permanent parliamentary commission on  economic issues, Babken Tunyan, noted that taking a decision, members  of the My Step faction, of which he is a member, are guided solely by  the interests of the citizens of Armenia. "We never wanted this issue  to go on a personal plane. We simply see no reason why we should  introduce a duty on imported clinker," the MP stressed.

According to him, there is reason to believe that the cost of cement  is too high. "Moreover, the government has already made a concession  to Araratcement plant in 2016. Namely, they have been forgiven taxes  and fines of 500 million drams. But we cannot constantly help the  state to the detriment of the plant," the MP said, assuring that he  and his associates are guided by the economic interests of Armenia.  "And no matter how much indirect pressure is exerted on us, we still  will not move away from our principles," the MP stressed. He stated  that the leadership of "Araratcement" itself does not want to go for  constructive and mainly transparent cooperation. "They respond to our  proposals with personal insults. If they have nothing to hide, let  them open accounting, conduct an independent audit, let them check  and see what has happened over the past 17 years," said the MP.

He also added that it is necessary to conduct an independent audit in  order to understand at what tax rate Armenian enterprises can work  with profit.  Head of the "Bright Armenia" party, Edmon Maarukyan,  considered that a banal clash of interests was clearly observed in  this area. "One of the factions persistently and consistently  protects the interests of its leader. This whole situation is simply  amazing. We believe that the draft law is incomplete, we have no  personal interests," Marukyan concluded.

To note, owner of the Araratcement plant, head of the Prosperous  Apmenia party, MP Gagik Tsarukyan expressed his extreme  dissatisfaction with the fact that the government did not raise tax  rates on imports of cheap clinker from Iran, which is the main raw  material for cement production. According to Tsarukyan, this beats  the interests of the domestic producer, and therefore he has to make  reductions in the Araratcement plant. He also accused the head of the  parliamentary economic commission Babken Tunyan of pursuing personal  interests in this matter, since his relative is one of the clinker  importers. The ruling <My step> bloc saw blackmail in the actions of  Tsarukyan and his team, dictated by the desire of the MP to get  personal gain.