Armenia`s SME sector to postpone its protests for a month

ArmInfo. Another protest by representatives of small and medium businesses (SMEs) of Armenia was  held outside the government building. They demanded the repeal of the recently adopted law that increases the turnover tax for SMEs from 5% to 10%. Additionally, they called for an inventory to be conducted,  which requires accounting services that are too costly for small businesses.

Those who gathered near the government building noted that this law  was adopted without proper research of all focus groups and without  appropriate discussions with them. The law is solely based  on tax  reports, but, as the protesters noted, 55,000 people with various  problems and representing different sectors, are affected by these  innovations. Businesses expressed a unanimous opinion that these tax  amendments are immature. The adoption of such a law, in their  opinion, only shows that the authorities are  not working at all.

It should be noted that no government representatives came out to  meet with the gathered entrepreneurs and no dialogue took place.  However, the SME community did demand a meeting with Armenian Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In this regard, a group of businessmen  decided not to take any further actions until April 14, giving the  government time to provide responses to the letters they had  previously sent.  They also stated that the authorities current  policy could only be described as a form of terror against  businesses, which may ultimately result in a population outflow.   Touching on the meeting with Armenian Minister of Economy Gevorg  Papoyan, which took place last week after another protest, business  representatives labeled this structure as defunct. the  entrepreneurs asked.