SOME OF THE OLIGARCHS PAY MORE TAXES THAN BEFORE, BUT SOME OF THEM – FEWER?
By Ara Martirosian
AZG Armenian Daily
27/04/2007
Some changes are registered on the list of the first 300 taxpayers
of RA of the first quarter of this year. This time, the first
taxpayer is not the ‘Copper-molybdenum conglomerate of Zangezur’ but
‘Armrusgazprom’ with its 6.8 milliard paid taxes. In the second place
is ‘Armentel’ – 5.2 milliard drams, then comes the ‘Copper-molybdenum
conglomerate of Zangezur’ – 4.6 milliard drams, but it is worth to
mention that the conglomerate is the biggest corporation taxpayer in RA
– 2.7 milliard drams. ‘Armentel’s’ corporation tax is a little less –
2.6-milliard drams. In the fourth place is ‘Gh-telecom’ company -1.2
milliard corporate taxes out of a total of 2.9 milliard paid taxes. In
the fifth place appears ‘Salex group’ – 2.3 milliard drams, it’s one of
the companies created by the owner of ‘Yerevan-Sit’, ‘Gor’, ‘Lusastgh’
supermarkets, deputy of the National Assembly Samvel Aleksanian, who
has a monopoly on the import of sugar, and leadership on the import
of butter, alcohol and grain.
This company, like the others created by Samvel Aleksanian, does not
pay a corporate tax in general. Moreover, its paid taxes are not
even close to the real circulation indices of the company. In the
sixth place is ‘Flesh’, the biggest importer of petrol and diesel
fuel, with its 2.2-milliard drams paid taxes. The seventh is another
importer of fuel ‘Kaghpetrolservice’ – 2 milliard drams.
The biggest importer of tobacco ‘Pares Armenia’ paid 1.5 milliard
drams, ‘Electricity systems of Armenia’ – 1.1 milliard drams and the
ten concludes ‘The Armenian Atomic Power Station’ – 1.1 milliard
drams. Hrant Vardanians ‘Grand Tobacco’ (887 million drams) and
‘International Masis Tabac’ (878 million drams) companies are in
the 12th and 13th place. H. Vardanian’s other company ‘Grand Candy’
paid 337 million drams. A sharp growth has registered ‘Yerevan jur’
company – it is in the 21st place this year instead of the 83rd of
last year. Gagik Tsarukian’s ‘Araratcement’ also registered a growth
(273 million drams) and is in the 40th place instead of the 107th of
last year. We have always mentioned about the shady circulations of
‘Araratcement’ and even though the indices have changed a little this
year, they are far from being real.
Another oligarch Michail Baghdasarov’s ‘Mika cement’ company is not
even in this list, what about his company ‘Mika Armenia Traiding’, it
paid 280 million drams and is in the 37th place. Michail Baghdasarov’s
‘Armavia airlines’ company is only in the 194th place with its 62
million drams paid tax. In 2006 it was in the 136th place. According
to these indices, we can conclude that either Michail Baghdasarov’s
business does not have a success, or his status has changed, which
let him pay fewer taxes. It’s not difficult to understand that the
last is the truth.
‘Derjava -S’ (food) and ‘Metex’ (iron) companies also pay ridiculous
taxes – 9,5 million drams and 8,5 million drams. The same we can
say about the importer of electronics ‘Zigzag’, which paid only 6.8
million drams of corporation taxes.
Food and clothes fairs also pay little taxes, i.e. Malatia fair, which
is ‘Rafael-Tatev’ company, paid 118 million drams, ‘Hrazdan rental
corporation’ – 100 million drams, ‘Petak’ is in the 295th place – 42
million drams and ‘Hayastan trade center, Hayrapetian brothers’ in the
300th place – 41 million drams. For comparison we can see that State
Economic University of Armenia also paid 42 million drams and is in the
296th place side-by-side with the above-mentioned companies. These are
facts about the shadow circulations of the system of trade in Armenia.