BETWEEN A STATE AND A FIRING RANGE

Lragir
Feb 13 2008
Armenia

Recently I witnessed a heartbreaking scene on the Armenian TV
channels. It was a report from Stepanakert where the delegation of
the tax service of Armenia led by the head Vahram Barseghyan was
visiting. Naturally, tax-related problems were discussed. The NKR
President Bako Sahakyan met with the delegation of the Armenian tax
service, who afterwards visited the Holy Sea Etchmiadzin and met
with the Catholicos of All Armenians. Perhaps after contact with the
Armenian tax service Bako Sahakyan needed some spirituality. However,
this is not the problem because if Bako Sahakyan learns about the 50
percent growth of the price of candles in churches, he will notice
more spirituality in the tax service.

The problem is what the prime minister of NKR Arayik Harutiunyan said
in the report. He told about the meeting and arrangements between
the Armenian tax service and the NKR government with a happy smile,
and noted about arrangement on tax experiments in Karabakh. In other
words, the Armenian party had suggested that since Karabakh is a small
country, tax innovations could be tried out there, and depending on the
result, they could be introduced in Armenia. The NKR prime minister
liked this idea and he welcomed it. And since the NKR prime minister
liked it, the NKR president must have liked it too. It is also beyond
doubt that the Armenian government also likes it, otherwise it would
not have been discussed during the visit of the tax service leadership
to Karabakh. It turns out that Karabakh becomes a tax test area for
Armenia, a firing range where experiments will be done, and in case
they are successful, they will be introduced in Armenia.

Any test area is a desert where no life is crated but several
infrastructures to supply the personnel of the firing range. A firing
range is cut off from life where future life is tried out from time
to time. A tax test area is milder than a firing range, though it
is the same in the long run. Meanwhile, logically Karabakh has an
important goal to be a modern vital area, and tax experiments do not
meet this goal at all. Yes, Karabakh is a small country, therefore an
experiment, be it tax-related, customs-related or military, may cause
strong resonance, detonation may be too powerful. Experiments may do
great harm to a small country if they fail. Therefore, the opposite
is more logical – to use methods in Karabakh which have been tried
out elsewhere, possibly improved, and the experimental component it
possibly the smallest.

The application of an unsuccessful tax technology may destroy the
entire economy of Karabakh because its immunity is weak, objectively
weak, and if in Armenia the sector is more or less established and
can resist to tax mistakes if they are eliminated in time, in Karabakh
they may not even manage to detect good or bad result of the experiment
because the economy may disappear before they detect anything. Although
maybe there is no need to take everything seriously. After all, we
had to talk about something. If all words came true, chapels would
have turned into cathedrals, and poor people’s huts into palaces.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress