news.am, Armenia
Jan 15 2010
Armen Gevorgyan: Much can yet be taxed
16:33 / 01/15/2010In 2009, communities collected property tax revenues
3.5bn AMD more than in 2008, RA Vice-Premier, Minister of Territorial
Administration Armen Gevorgyan told a press conference.
`Still, I am not satisfied with the situation, there are great hidden
reserves in this sector,’ Gevorgyan said. Much can yet be taxed ` for
example, entertainment tax can be introduced, he said. In any case,
Gevorgyan said, relatively satisfactory tax collection by local
budgets enabled them to pay off arrears of wages accumulated since
1996. So the arrears have been reduced from 2.3bn AMD in 2008 down to
866m AMD.
Minister Gevorgyan reported that the tax revenues collected by local
authorities constitute 42% of the total revenues of community budgets.
`The reason is very low tax rates. An owner of 1,000 sq meters of land
in the center of Yerevan pays an annual tax of 25,000 AMD. Tax rates
have remained unchanged since 1994, when they were introduced. But we
do not want to raise them so as not to create social tension,’
Gevorgyan said.
To improve local tax collection, the Government proposed a number of
initiatives. Specifically, the standing committees of the RA
Parliament are considering a bill on a single land and property tax.
`If we manage to enforce it from 2011, the situation will improve,’
Gevorgyan said.
The Minister also reported that the RA Ministry of Territorial
Administration intends to appraise the work of regional
administrations. `I can say that the work of none of the heads of
regional administrations has yet received an unsatisfactory rating.
But we will sum up this February,’ Gevorgyan said.
T.P.