UITE LAUNCHES CUSTOMS CORRUPTION RISK REDUCTION PROGRAM
Noyan Tapan
Dec 5, 2008
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN. The Union of IT Enterprises of
Armenia (UITE) in cooperation with USAID’s Anticorruption Activity
Mobilization Program launched a 6-month Customs Legislation and
Administration Reforms.
Corruption Risk Reduction Program in November 2008.
The program’s goals and expected results are development of a package
of reforms on customs legislation and administration, availability
of information on forecast prices of imported goods of ICT sector at
the website of the Customs Service of the RA State Revenue Committee,
which will provide an opportunity to avoid corruption risks in the
customs clearance process. The program envisages studies of legislative
and administrative obstacles, and a public notification campaign to
ensure the efficiency of notification about legislative amendments
and receipt of proposals. As a result of the program, amendments
will be made in the whole legal field on the customs sector in case
of necessity and steps will be taken to regulate the circulation of
documents in this sector.
The UITE Executive Director Karen Vardanian said at the December 4
press conference that about two months ago the Armenian government
approved the concept of development of the IT sector which includes
a provision on improvement of the tax and customs legislation. Based
on it, although reforms of the indicated sector were implemented
under the new government, this process has considerable slowed
down. The above mentioned Customs Legislation and Administration
Reforms. Corruption Risk Reduction Program is aimed at accelerating
the process. K. Vardanian added that although about 6 months ago the
Armenian president instructed the Customs Service to place the prices
of imported goods on the website of the Service, some prices of IT
sector’s goods have not been placed, with an explanation being provided
that the prices of these goods are rapidly changing in international
markets, and under such conditions a technological way of presenting
prices has not been determined yet.
It was mentioned that the majority of Armenian ICT companies import
computers and telecommunication equipment, and at the border these
companies are charged a "value added tax that has not been yet
created", which becomes a reason for main corruption risks. This
order was the reason why, for example, Intel company did not
implement a 10 million investment program in Armenia two years
ago. K. Vardanian expressed a hope that the launching of a united
system of cash registers’ data collection by the RA State Revenue
Committee will allow passing more easily to the practice of value
added tax collection in the domestic market.
Another problem is related to duration of customs clearance that
lasts about 5 days in Armenia, while the same process lasts only
15-20 minutes in Germany or Singapore.
Speaking about the problem of import of unlicensed software discs,
K. Vardanian said that the provisions on copyright of the Customs
Code state that the value of intellectual property that the imported
disc contains must be assessed, whereas Armenian customs services
currently assess such discs as ones with musical recordings with the
value of 1,500 drams (about 5 dollars). In his words, the prevention
of the import of discs with unlicensed software will allow the domestic
business to develop, which in its turn will contribute to job creation
and technological development.
There are also export-related problems. According to K. Vardanian, one
problem is imperfection of the lists of goods of double importance with
special regimes of export and import, which has become a reason for
assessing nonmilitary equipment as equipment of this type. Besides,
the regime for cases of sending equipment abroad for repairs and
receiving it back as well as cases of its exchange has not been
specified, due to which such goods are subject to double taxation.