ArmInfo.Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been accused in lobbying for the interests of the company related to with Serzh Sargsyan. The head of government stated this on December 5 at a cabinet meeting.
So, after his record of the need to get rid of rusty and unnecessary scrap metal, he received a very interesting response. "They say that you are actually forcing people to gave metal for pennies to a company related to with Serzh Sargsyan. "This is when this abandoned metal rusts there, does not bring any benefits. When children rise and fall on it, spoils their aesthetic taste, "the prime minister noted.
And here, he said, an internal political conspiracy is again emerging that "virtually the entire revolution was for these iron bodies to serve the interests of the former corrupt regime." Now they also want to put networks from below, "Pashinyan said laughing, emphasizing that this is not a economic, but a civilizational issue. Armenian Economy Minister Tigran Khachatryan, in turn, said that over the past 2 months, about 3600 tons of scrap metal have been collected by private organizations. At the same time, as he pointed out, today there is a problem related to the unwillingness of citizens even to rent old, abandoned cars for money. As the minister pointed out, the government at this stage is considering how to make them surrender
To recall, on November 26, Nikol Pashinyan on his page on Facebook called on citizens to clear the republic of metal debris. So, according to Pashinyan, over 11 thousand old cars have been collected in Armenia over the past two months. "We will cleanse Armenia of garbage," he wrote.
It should be noted that Armenia has become a kind of "graveyard" of old cars, since from 2015 to 2020, the customs duty on cars in Armenia remained at 10%, regardless of the age and volume of the engine. From January 1, 2020, duties on cars imported into Armenia from countries that are not members of the EAEU will correspond to the common customs duties of the Union. As a result, the cost of customs clearance of a car, especially for used cars, which are now being bought at a low price and imported into the country in very large quantities, will increase significantly. In this regard, many are trying to manage to take advantage of the "window" of the EAEU and make money on it. As the head of the State Revenue Committee David Ananyan stated earlier, from 2020, after the entry into force of the EAEU regulations, budget revenues in this sector alone will decrease by 50-52 billion drams. How much does it cost to recycle metal trash from old cars, officials are silent.
So, if in 2016 a little less than 17 thousand cars were brought to Armenia, then in 2017 it was already 39 thousand, and in 2018 - 67 thousand. In the first half of this year, 53,210 cars were imported into the country, for the same period of 2018 - 26,410, which indicates a double increase in the number of imported cars. As for their value, in the first half of this year, the total (customs) value of imported cars amounted to 139 million dollars. Compared with last year's figure, this is an increase of $ 32 million, or 29.5%. It turns out that indicators of car imports grew faster than their value, which indicates that cheaper cars began to be imported into Armenia. If in the first half of 2018 the average customs value of one car was about $ 4.1 thousand, then in the first half of this year - $ 2.6 thousand