GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA TOUGHENING CONTROL OVER BIG BUSINESS

ArmInfo
2010-04-08 13:50:00

ArmInfo. The Government of Armenia is toughening fiscal control over
big business to make it more transparent, Armenian Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan told the government on Thursday.

He said that on April 1 the Finance Ministry published the list of
285 big taxpayers in Armenia having over 1 billion drams turnover
for 2009. "This list is yet to be specified on the basis of the
submitted reports and some companies may found themselves out of
the list and another ones may be included in it," Tigran Sargsyan
said. The government is often criticized for insufficient control
over big companies. "I accept this criticism. It is a big evil for
every state to have big companies that avoid taxes, shaking the basis
of the country and hinder development of SMEs," he said. He recalled
that the president of Armenia had repeatedly charged the ministries
of finance, economy and the government staff to enhance analysis to
reveal the companies underpaying taxes.

"We have been trying to hire human resources able to make such
analysis, but the work carried out is unfortunately not satisfactory
yet. The Finance Ministry is to publish the results of its surveys
within a year i.e. to present comparison of the indicators of big
taxpayers for 2008 and 2009," the prime minister said. "We are
concerned with the fact that the main burden was laid on the SMEs
in the crisis year and not on the big business and we must dispel
all the doubts on big companies," T. Sargsyan said. Publication of
reports will make it possible for the public to control over the
government’s work and get information on fulfillment of commitments
to the government by big companies. "We have still much to do in this
area as well," the prime minister said. In addition, he said, a bill
of amendments to the Law On Taxes is currently in the parliament. The
bill stipulates that information received from a third party may
also be used to make objective assessment of the tax liabilities of
big companies. "I think that the bill must be approved without any
delay," Tigran Sargsyan said. He explained that indirect information
implies data on electricity and water consumption, communal payments
that are compared with the gross volume of production at big companies.

Tigran Sargsyan said that the most effective instrument for assessment
of big companies is to make them transparent and the government is
implementing a relevant strategy. "In addition, commissions on ethics
are set up to make it possible for the government to control over
activity of parliamentarians and ministers not to allow them directly
run business. This is what we need. The possibilities of the Finance
Ministry in this area must be increased," the prime minister said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress