MP SAYS CUSTOMS OFFICE INFLICTS MILLIONS OF LOSSES ON STATE BUDGET

Lragir.am
06 April 06

“The customs committee is an organization which permanently violates
the law. It is common knowledge that violation of the law is a
crime. Hence, the head of the customs committee is an offender,”
states MP Tatul Manaseryan.

To make this statement he gave a press conference April 6, and he also
offered reasons for his statement. The Member of Parliament assures
that certain importers of certain products are privileges for the head
of the Customs Committee. “Certain importers pay only half of customs
duties, others do not pay anything,” says Tatul Manaseryan. He made
an inquiry for data on payment of customs duties for some products
imported to Armenia. On April 6 the Customs Committee was to answer,
but failed to.

“Only in import of coffee the illegal actions of the customs inflict
losses of 10 million dollars annually on the state budget.

For instance, Royal Armenia pays 1.8 dollar, and other 9 companies
importing coffee of the same quality and origin pay twice as less. I
am not asking why Royal Armenia pays more. I am asking why the others
pay less,” says Tatul Manaseryan.

The center of the next statements against the head of the Customs
Committee was again Royal Armenia. According to him, the head of the
Customs Committee thus takes revenge for he was not offered a bribe.

“They demanded a bribe from the president of the company Gagik
Hakobyan, and he refused to bribe the customs committee. Now the
head of the customs committee Armen Avetisyan takes revenge,” says
the member of parliament.

According to him, Armen Avetisyan’s revenge is taken by the National
Security Service, and the president of Royal Armenia Gagik Hakobyan
and manager Aram Ghazaryan are illegally kept in custody for six
months now. “The decision on the custody was prolonged three times for
groundless reasons. No information can be obtained, it is impossible
to visit them. The audit of the company’s record revealed nothing. The
head of the customs committee organized a false attempt against his
life to charge Gagik Hakobyan but there was no evidence. The case
was dismissed,” said Tatul Manaseryan.

He said under the court ruling, the customs committee was to pay a fine
to Royal Armenia but it did not. He has applied to the Supervision
Service of the President, the Audit Chamber of the National Assembly
and the ombudsman, and on April 6 he will send the materials to the
Head Public Prosecutor.

Besides coffee and the example of Royal Armenia Tatul Manaseryan
balances his stricture with other examples. Particularly, he says,
according to the data of the customs committee, presently petrol
imported to Armenia I is two times less than in 1998 and 1999.

“Whereas the import of cars has doubled, and the petrol supplied for
the official car pool on the state budget has doubled against the
previous years,” says the MP.

According to him, the illegal import of petrol inflicts losses of
55 million dollars on the budget of Armenia. And the total of losses
that the budget of Armenia annually suffers is equal to 1.5 per cent
of the GDP. “I call the Office of Public Prosecutor to focus attention
on this,” says the member of parliament, although he is not convinced
that the Office of Public Prosecutor will do.

He presents a fact from the World Bank report that 46 drams out of
100 drams paid to the Customs Committee for import and export is
bribe. He urged the law enforcement bodies to accuse the experts of
the World Bank of slander against the state governmental body if their
report does not correspond to the reality. And if it does correspond
to the reality, let them accuse the head of the customs committee,
says Tatul Manaseryan.