18 ARMENIAN BANKS LISTED AMONG 1,000 LARGEST TAX-PAYERS IN 1ST HALF OF 2006

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 3, 2006

YEREVAN, August 3. /ARKA/ Eighteen out of 21 Armenian banks were
listed among the largest tax payers in the 1st half of 2006. The RA
Taxation Service reports that direct taxes totaled AMD 3.62bln or
94.24% of all direct taxes paid by Armenia’s banks.

The banks in question paid 2.81% of the taxes paid by the 1,000
largest tax-payers of Armenia.

The first hundred of Armenia’s largest tax payers includes
Ardshininvestbank (AMD 672.3mln), HSBC Bank Armenia (640.5mln),
Conversebank (404.7mln), Armeconombank (370.8ln), ACBA (351.9mln),
Armsavingsbank (AMD 336.4mln), and Bank Anelik (240.9mln).

Among the 1,000 largest tax payers are also Inecobank, Unibank,
Areximbank, Bank Prometey, Mellat Bank, Armimpexbank, International
Investment Bank, ITB, ArmSwissbank, Armenian Development Bank and
Cascade Bank.

The list published by the State Taxation Service also includes three
credit institutions: ACBA Leasing – AMD 154.5mln, Izmirlyan Eurasia –
AMD 36.6mln, "SEF International" – 15.1mln, as well as the national
payment system "Armenian Card" CJSC (AMD 38.5mln), and Armenian Stock
Exchange (ARMEX) (AMD 23.5mln).

The 1,000 largest thousand AMD-payers of Armenia paid a total of AMD
136.7bln to the state budget in the 1st half of 2006. P.T. -0–