ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS DRAFT AMENDMENTS ON EXCHANGE CONTROL
ARKA
March 18, 2009
YEREVAN, March 18. /ARKA/. At its sitting today the RA Parliament
adopted, in their second reading, draft amendments to the RA Code
of Administrative Offences and to the RA Law on Exchange Adjustment
and Control.
Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Artur Javadyan reported
that the draft amendments specifically concern Article 165 of the
Code of Administrative Offences, which provides for responsibility
for the violation of the relevant legal acts.
The draft amendments provide for a minimum fine of 2mln AMD for not
noting the prices in terms of AMD. In case of recurrence, an economic
entity will be fined 4mln AMD.
The CBA Chairman said that this is a topical issue as frequent cases of
noting prices in terms of foreign currencies have lately bee recorded.
Javadyan stressed the negative influence of dollarization.
"Dollarization may cause sharp fluctuations on the market and make
it dependent on decisions made by other countries," Javadyan said.
The CBA Chairman pointed out that in the current socio-economic
situations any violations of the Armenian currency policy may cause
rather serious problems of national security because noting prices
in terms of foreign currencies make the public much more vulnerable
and dependent on exchange fluctuations.
Javadyan said that the amendments also specify Article 188.1 of the
RA Criminal Code, wh ich provides for sanctions for unlicensed foreign
exchange business.
According to the former wording, persons are only responsible for
effecting foreign exchange transactions to the amount of 200,000
AMD. The amendments provide for criminal responsibility to unlicensed
foreign exchange transactions to the amount of 100,000 AMD and more.
"Thus the bar has been let down to tighten the control," Javadyan said.
On March 3, the CBA returned to the floating rate regime. CBA
experts forecast an average exchange rate between the USD and AMD at
$1/360-380 AMD.
The CBA’s decision made some businessmen note prices in terms of
USD.