MPS, MINISTERS MUST NOT DO BUSINESS, PREMIER STATES

news.am
April 8 2010
Armenia

"We all together must see to it that all the large Armenian enterprises
provide their accounts to the public," RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan stated at the RA Government’s sitting on April 8. He pointed
out that a list of 285 enterprises recording an annual turnover of
1bn AMD has been published.

"We are accused of being unable to ensure proper control over large
enterprises, and I agree with the criticism. If a large enterprise
can evade taxes, it is a scourge for the state – it destroys the
foundations of the state and hinders SMB development," the Premier
said.

He stated that the RA Ministry of Finance must publish the results of
its surveys and show the comparative indices of the largest taxpayers
for 2008 and 2009.

"We suspect that the tax burden has mainly fallen on small-to-medium
businesses, not on the large enterprises. And we must expel the
suspicions," T. Sargsyan said. He pointed out that publicity is the
best way of ensuring transparency.

"If we also set up commissions for ethics, which are supposed to
supervise Parliament members and Ministers and prevent them from
doing business, I think our society will have greater confidence in
big businesses. We need it, of course," the Premier said.