PRACTICAL REFORMING OF TAXATION AND CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION IN ARMENIA HINDERED BY CULTURE OF REVENUE SERVICES-BUSINESS RELATIONS

ArmInfo
2009-10-07 12:46:00

ArmInfo. Practical reforming of the taxation and customs administration
in Armenia is hindered by the existing culture of the revenue
services-business relations, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
said at the opening of the 30th session of the Interstate Council of
Antimonopoly Policy in Yerevan on Wednesday.

"Over the last 15 years our countries have chosen different ways to
change over to the market economy. These ways are different but the
experience of other states has always been very important for us
at least to avoid the mistakes of others. But one thing is clear –
any distortion of market competition leads to big problems. We must
find out the reasons of these distortions since only by fighting
the reasons of competition distortions and not the consequences will
make the activity of the government and anti- monopoly authorities
effective," Tigran Sargsyan said. He highlighted the shadow economy
as one of the most important problems of the Armenian economy. The
premier called reduction of shadow economy scales a task of government
importance. "The key problem is connected with taxation and customs
administration the poor quality of which is a source of concern for
both the government and business. We have developed a program of
administration improvement, which has been highly appraised by our
international partners. However, we should not only formulate our
problems but also settle them in practice. Unfortunately, we can see
that taxation services and business representatives are not ready
for this. The reason is the 15-year-old culture of relations between
the two parties which is not easy to change at once. In this respect,
the global financial and economic crisis gives us a chance to carry
out quite ambitious reforms," Tigran Sargsyan said.