"RUSSIAN RAILWAYS" OBLIGED TO TRANSFER 2% OF ANNUAL TURNOVER OF "ARMENIAN RAILWAY" TO STATE BUDGET OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Jan 10, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. By the package of financial
proposals submitted by Russian Railways company – the only candidate
for concession management of Armenian Railway company, the Russian
company intends to transfer 1.7 bln drams (about 5.5 mln USD) as
concession payment to the state budget of Armenia. The RA minister of
transport and communication Andranik Manukian informed reporters on
January 10 that the manager also assumes the obligation to transfer,
in addition to taxes, 2% of annual turnover of Armenian Railway to
the RA state budget. By preliminary estimates, in 30 years this sum
will amount to about 38 billion drams. The Russian side is going to
invest about 570 million dollars over 30 years, including 220 million
dollars during the first 5 years of management.

The total length of Armenia’s railroads makes 1,125 km, 805 km of
which are on Armenian Railway company’s balance-sheet. Acccording to
A. Manukian, since 2001, Armenian Railway has operated at a profit. 3
million tons of goods was transported last year.

To recap, the name of the manager of Armenian Railway will be announced
on January 16.