Wednesday, September 11 2019 17:26

ArmInfo. Car  importers -  individuals oppose the relocation of vehicles customs office to  Gyumri. Today, on September 11, they gathered at the government  building and demand a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Mher  Grigoryan.

As Tigran Hovhannisyan, chairman of the organization for drivers  protection, stated in an interview with reporters, what is the point  of transferring the customs clearance of vehicles to faraway Gyumri  if import of cars into Armenia decreases from the beginning of next  year. "According to the official information of the SRC, vehicles  customs will work at best from mid-October. Meanwhile, given the  entry into force of the EAEU customs regulations in 2020, the flow of  car imports will soon stop. And even if we import from Russia, which  is also a question, then this import is not subject to customs  clearance, "he explained.

Thus, as the importers said, it turns out that the country's  authorities force people to go this far in the winter months only for  customs clearance. In addition, they doubt that the city of Gyumri  itself will cope with such a stream. "Every day, about 1 thousand  cars go through customs clearance. Can you imagine what volumes are  involved? What traffic jams will be there," Hovhannisyan asked.  According to him, if you want to develop the region, then let the  authorities begin with themselves - the president, government,  parliament and others government agencies will relocate to Gyumri.

Tigran Hovhannisyan also noted that today about 10 thousand cars are  in ports of different countries.  According to him, in the Georgian  port of Poti there are three ships loaded with cars bought by the  Armenians, but they are not unloaded. "We still need to change the  steering wheel from right to left, and it will take another two  months. 10 thousand people after January will not be able to deliver  their cars to Armenia," he concluded.

Protesters were invited to meet with the adviser to the prime  minister. They rejected the proposal, saying that as large taxpayers  they have the right to be heard, if not at the level of the prime  minister, then at least the deputy prime minister.

Earlier, ArmInfo reported that from January 1, 2020, new customs  rates on cars imported into the republic from third countries will  begin to be applied in Armenia. These rates will be in tune with the  tariffs set for all EAEU countries. As a result, if in 2018 about 67  thousand cars were imported, then by the end of July this year the  figure reached about 70 thousand. In this regard, at the customs  clearance points, in particular, in Yerevan Noragavit, kilometer-long  queues were formed.

According to the SRC, as of July, about 700 cars were registered  daily in Armenia, of which about 500 were registered in the Noragavit  village. Since August 1, a seven-day work schedule has been set in  the Noragavit vehicles customs departments. However, for a  comprehensive solution to the problem, the Armenian Prime Minister  instructed the SRC to relocate the vehicles customs office to Gyumri,  where all necessary conditions and appropriate infrastructures for  quick and easy registration of cars will be created.

The program to create a new center of foreign economic activity in  Gyumri, including customs clearance of cars, was estimated at 2.2  billion drams. Construction is planned on the territory of 21.5  hectares owned by the Ministry of Defense. 4.5 hectares from this  territory will be allocated for the establishment of a customs and  police service center. Cabinet has already allocated 966.4 million  drams for the construction. As the head of SRC David Ananyan recently  stated, although this is difficult to implement, the construction of  a car customs will be completed by October 11.