FIASCO IN ANTI-CORRUPTION STRUGGLE IN PARLIAMENT
Lragir.am
31 May 06
On May 31 the National Assembly debated and rejected two bills,
which were said by the authors to be steps against corruption. These
bills were introduced by the government, and were supported by the
Republican majority, and were not adopted. One of the bills was on
the declaration of property and income of natural persons, the other
was on imprisonment for tax evasion.
“They speak about anti-corruption policies, transparency,
accountability but the changes to the Crime Code connected with tax
evasion is not passed. The bill on declaration of property and income
of natural persons, which is targeted at people whose monthly income
and salary exceed 500 thousand drams, is not adopted,” said Armen
Alaverdyan, Deputy Chief of the State Tax Agency, to news reporters
after the failure of the bills. Moreover, he says, if adopted, the
law on declaration would be enforced in 2008. Armen Alaverdyan says
the members of parliament demanded to change the bill on imprisonment
for tax evasion.
“We had made it softer, turned the threshold gradual, replaced
three million with six million. Property 40 million. The members of
parliament who did not vote last time, did not vote this time either.
I do not know why. Why are we talking about battling corruption,
pre-election programs and so on? Now shall we battle corruption or
not?” asks Armen Alaverdyan, who was very much upset by the failure
of the bills.
The majority of members of parliament who were, in fact, against
these laws, and either voted against or did not vote at all, explain
their action by the interests of people. They say a farmer does not
earn that much to declare his income and pay taxes. Armen Alaverdyan
thinks that this explanation is false and impertinent. “They blame
farmers for everything. You are sure not to find a farmer whose monthly
income is 500 thousand drams,” says Armen Alaverdyan. He concludes
from the failure of these bills that the members of parliament serve
the interests of people who earn over 500 thousand drams monthly and
are reluctant to declare anything rather than people.
From: Baghdasarian