Thursday, July 9, 2020

Armenian Tax Revenue Falls Amid Recession

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia -- The entrance to the State Revenue Committee headquarters in Yerevan, 
November 29, 2018.

In another sign of a coronavirus-driven recession in the country, the Armenian 
government reported on Thursday a 4.6 percent fall in its tax revenues in the 
first half of this year.

The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said it collected 680.3 billion drams ($1.4 
billion) in various taxes and customs duties, down from 713.3 billion drams 
collected in January-June 2019.

The drop came after several consecutive years of rapid increase in Armenia’s tax 
revenues. It reflects a sharp economic downturn that began with the onset of the 
coronavirus pandemic in March.

Vahagn Khachatrian, a veteran economist, said the pandemic and the resulting 
economic disruptions made the tax shortfall inevitable. “This situation is 
expected to continue because we still don’t know what how long the coronavirus 
crisis will last,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

“This is a cause for serious concern,” another economist, Gevorg Parsian, said 
of the shortfall. He construed it as further proof of a serious economic crisis 
in Armenia.

Parsian also said that the SRC failed to meet its revenue target not only 
because of the pandemic but also tax cuts that took effect in January.

Finance Minister Atom Janjughazian predicted a revenue shortfall already in 
April, saying that it will total 170 billion drams ($350 million) this year. 
Shortly afterwards, the government amended its 2020 budget to take account of 
the lower-than-projected tax receipts as well as 150 billion drams ($310 
million) in coronavirus-related relief measures financed by it.

The government plans to borrow more than $530 million from mainly foreign 
sources in order to cover the extra budget deficit. It secured a $280 million 
loan from the International Monetary Fund in May.

The governor of the country’s Central Bank, Martin Galstian, forecast last week 
that the Armenian economy will contract by 4 percent this year due to the 
negative impact of the pandemic. But he said it should recover and grow by 5.5 
percent already next year.




Armenian Government Sticks To COVID-19 Strategy


Armenia -- People wear face masks in the center of Yerevan, June 10, 2020.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian indicated on Thursday that his government has no 
plans yet to change its strategy of tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

Pashinian said the government will keep putting the emphasis on getting more 
Armenians to practice social distancing and wear face masks in all public spaces 
and is ready to take the “strictest administrative measures” for that purpose.

“I want to again emphasize that our anti-epidemic strategy remains the same,” he 
said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “Namely, to learn to 
live under the kind of rules that will allow us to nullify new [coronavirus] 
cases or reduce them to a minimum.”

“Dear compatriots, I want to again remind you that there is a coronavirus 
pandemic in Armenia and the most effective means of fighting that pandemic is to 
wear masks, maintain social distancing and periodically disinfect hands,” he 
said.

Armenia has had one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the world, 
with a total of 30,346 cases confirmed in the country of about 3 million so far. 
According to the Ministry of Health, 526 people tested positive for the virus on 
Wednesday.

The ministry also reported on Thursday morning the deaths of 20 more people 
infected with COVID-19. It said COVID-19 was the primary cause of 14 of those 
deaths.

The official death toll thus rose to 535. The figure does not include 170 other 
infected people who the ministry says have died from other, pre-existing 
conditions.


Armenia -- A healthcare worker wearing protective gear takes notes at the Surb 
Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.

“The situation remains stable but severe,” Health Minister Arsen Torosian said 
at the cabinet meeting. “That is, there is no negative trend but there is no 
substantial positive trend either.”

Torosian also announced that the health authorities are planning to set up 
dozens of more intensive care beds at Armenian hospitals treating COVID-19 
patients. They already helped to boost hospital capacity last month in the face 
of a rising number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations.

Pashinian warned on Monday that the government will have to impose another 
nationwide lockdown if the hospitals are no longer able to cope with the 
continuing influx of patients. The prime minister did not mention such a 
possibility on Thursday. He spoke instead of a possible “further toughening” of 
fines and other sanctions against people refusing to wear masks.

“We should manage to ensure compliance with the anti-epidemic rules, including 
through the strictest administrative measures,” he said.

Opposition leaders and other critics of Pashinian’s government increasingly 
criticize its handling of the coronavirus crisis.

The two opposition parties represented in the Armenian parliament initiated last 
week the formation of an ad hoc parliamentary commission tasked with 
investigating the government’s coronavirus response. Torosian insisted 
afterwards that the government has done a good job dealing with the pandemic.




European Court Rejects Injunction Sought By Ousted Armenian Judges

        • Gayane Saribekian
        • Nane Sahakian

France -- The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, February 7, 
2019.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has refused to issue an “interim” 
injunction that would freeze the implementation of constitutional changes 
calling for the dismissal of the chairman and three other members of Armenia’s 
Constitutional Court.

The changes passed by the Armenian parliament late last month stipulate that 
Hrayr Tovmasian must resign as the court’s chairman remain but remain one of its 
nine judges. They also mandate the replacement of three other judges who had 
taken the bench in the 1990s.

Tovmasian and the three ousted judges -- Alvina Gyulumian, Felix Tokhian and 
Hrant Nazarian -- have refused to step down, saying that the changes were 
enacted in breach of Armenia’s constitution and laws. In an appeal to the ECHR 
filed on June 26, they asked the Strasbourg-based court to order the Armenian 
authorities to refrain from replacing them pending further hearings on the case.

In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the ECHR said it has rejected the 
“interim measure” requested by the plaintiffs because it saw no “risk of serious 
and irreparable harm” to them.

“Although the applicants’ request for an interim measure has been found to be 
out of scope, it is still open to them to lodge an application and to pursue 
their complaints before the Court,” read the statement. “When required, the 
Court may decide to give priority to certain applications.”

Siranuysh Sahakian, a lawyer representing the ousted judges, downplayed the 
ECHR’s decision on Thursday, saying that the Strasbourg court is continuing to 
examine the appeal. She said the ECHR has given the plaintiffs and the Armenian 
government until August 28 to present it with more arguments in support of their 
positions.

Alen Simonian, a deputy parliament speaker and close associate of Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian, hailed the ECHR’s decision. He said it vindicated Armenia’s 
ruling political team and dealt a blow to attempts to “delegitimize” changes in 
the Constitutional Court’s composition.

“I repeat that the process is absolutely lawful and the problem [addressed by 
it] is acknowledged by all of our partners,” he said.

Simonian also accused the plaintiffs of pursuing a hidden political agenda. 
“They are engaged in a political process and are clinging to their posts,” he 
said.

A senior lawmaker representing the opposition Bright Armenia Party (BHK) 
insisted, meanwhile, that the parliament’s pro-government majority amended the 
Armenian constitution illegally. “These constitutional changes are the result of 
an unlawful process,” said Taron Simonian.

Prosperous Armenia (BHK), the other opposition party represented in the National 
Assembly, is even more critical of the changes, having denounced them as a 
“constitutional coup.”

Tovmasian and six other Constitutional Court justices have been under strong 
government pressure to step down over the past year. Pashinian has accused them 
of maintaining close ties to Armenia’s former government and impeding his 
judicial reforms.

Tovmasian and opposition figures have dismissed Pashinian’s claims and in turn 
accused the prime minister of seeking to take control of the country’s highest 
court.

According to the ECHR statement, Tovmasian, Gyulumian, Tokhian and Nazarian 
claimed in their appeal that the controversial amendments to the Armenian 
constitution followed their and their colleagues’ harassment by the current 
authorities in Yerevan. They said the “long process of harassment” intensified 
after the Constitutional Court agreed in June 2018 to rule on an appeal filed by 
Robert Kocharian, a former Armenian president prosecuted on coup and corruption 
charges rejected by him as politically motivated.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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