Armenian Jewelers Urge Government To Refrain From Toughening Tax Adm

ARMENIAN JEWELERS URGE GOVERNMENT TO REFRAIN FROM TOUGHENING TAX ADMINISTERING

ARKA
Feb 25, 2009

YEREVAN, February 25. /ARKA/. Armenian jewelers call on the government
to refrain from toughening tax administering, chairman of Union
of Jewelers of Armenia, director of Yerevan Jewelry Factory Emil
Grigoryan said during the discussion of anti-crisis measures in the
country’s Union of Employers of Armenia Tuesday.

According to him, all the earlier measures taken to ensure stricter
tax and customs administering are sufficient. Now it is time to give
producers an opportunity to work, Grigoryan said.

He reported that the Union, together with the country’s Ministry
of Economy, has developed a trade and export measures package for
jewelry sector.

The package envisages review of legislation for representatives of
the domestic market, cooperation with banks in crediting and search
for raw diamonds for local enterprises, Grigoryan said.

The Ministry has already given a preliminary approval to the package,
and now steps are made to proceed with implementation.

At the sixth international economic forum "Bridge 2009" in Tsakhkadzor
on February 21, Armenian Premier Tigran Sargsyan said that quality
raw diamonds should be provided to diamond-cutting sector so that it
can take up a niche where the country has its comparative advantages.

He also said that Armenia had great potential for the field, but it
declined for some reasons and20today’s problem is the difficulty in
finding opportunities for purchase of raw diamonds.