Armenian politician calls for boycotting process of universal income  declaration

ArmInfo. The leader of the Enlightened Armenia party, former Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan, has called on the Armenian public to boycott the process of universal income declaration.

In his speech on his Facebook page, the politician noted that  according to the position of the authorities, the state allegedly  does not want to establish control over money transfers between  relatives and friends.  Moreover, Marukyan noted, the authorities  assure that the personal data of citizens is reliably protected, but  for some reason they demand this data.

Marukyan criticized the statement of the NA deputy Babken Tunyan  about the absence of requirements for disclosure of banking secrecy.   Meanwhile, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption with its  several dozen employees, the State Revenue Committee with hundreds of  employees and the Anti- Corruption Committee also with several dozen  employees have the right to check the bank accounts of citizens.   "What banking secrecy are we talking about? We need to respond to  this, do the citizens of the country want employees of state  structures to know about their personal data and bank accounts, which  at any moment can cease to be a secret and be transferred to other  persons, including in Turkey and Azerbaijan?" the politician asked,  adding that the state has no legitimacy in the ongoing processes.

According to Marukyan, the country needs a voluntary system, not a  mandatory system of income declaration for citizens. He called the  government's assurances about the advantages of the new system fairy  tales. "We watch the Prime Minister's live broadcasts, who posts a  new message almost every day, which contains assurances about  receiving rivers of milk and honey in response to declarations. It  seems that the government wants to bribe citizens of the country in  exchange for declarations. This is reminiscent of the use of  certification in relation to military personnel and teachers. If you  want to help people, help, and do not demand personal data and data  on bank transfers," Marukyan emphasized.

He added that in recent years, the economic policy of the RA  government was based exclusively on resources that came from outside.   Now these resources have been exhausted, which will affect the  indicators of 2025, which, according to the politician, will be bad  in terms of economic growth and tax collection. This process began  last year and will continue this year, as a result of which there  will be a need for personal funds of citizens. "They just want to get  access to the income of the country's residents, this is the whole  point of the issue. At the same time, the authorities themselves do  not know what they want. A month ago, they were shouting at all  intersections about the need to apply 300 drams for travel on public  transport, but now it turns out that the best option is a tariff of  150 drams. Now it is the turn of the income declaration system.   People, as a result of the boycott, we will come to the point that  this shameful system, which has nothing to do with the fight against  corruption, will be liquidated," the politician assured. 

Citizens of the country until May 1 of this year. must submit  declarations of their income to the tax authorities.