PUBLICITY GUARANTEE OF EQUAL CONDITIONS FOR ARMENIA’S TAXPAYERS, PREMIER STATES

ARKA
June 25

The principle of publicity is supposed to become the main means of
creating equal conditions for all taxpayers in Armenia, RA Premier
Tigran Sargsyan stated at a briefing at the RA Government.

"An effective means of publicity will ensure public confidence in
the Government’s commitment to carry out comprehensive reforms on
the one hand, and the public will make sure that all the taxpayers,
including big businesses, are equal before law," the Premier said.

He pointed out that the reason for businessmen’s discontent is the
need to ensure equal conditions for all the taxpayers, not high taxes
as such.

"In this context, a tide of discontent is mainly rising against big
businessmen, as the public is not sure that they pay all the taxes
in time," T. Sargsyan said.

The Premier announced the Government’s intention to prepare amendments
to Armenia’s legislation. The amendments provide for sanctions to be
applied against tax evaders.

This will allow the public to exercise control over the Government’s
following the tax equity principle.

In January-March 2008, Armenia’s 1,000 largest taxpayers paid a total
of 93.7bln AMD. The K-Telecom mobile operator (VivaCell brand) tops
the list of the largest taxpayers published by the RA Taxation Service.

The company paid a total of 6.87bln AMD to Armenia’s state
budget. Among Armenia’s largest taxpayers are ArmRosgasprom,
ArmenTel, Zangezur copper and molybdenum plant and Flash oil-importing
company.