Armenian Parliament Postpones Enforcement Of Paperwork Requirement T

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT POSTPONES ENFORCEMENT OF PAPERWORK REQUIREMENT TO SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES

YEREVAN, February 5. /ARKA/. Armenian National Assembly amended
Thursday the turnover tax law giving its consent to the proposed
postponement of enforcement of a requirement to small business owners
to provide tax authorities with documentary evidence of their wholesale
purchase deals with larger firms.

The law on turnover tax was revised last year lowering the turnover
tax for vendors with annual sales of up to 58 million drams ($125,000)
from 3.5 percent to 1 percent, but small business owners were to do
the mentioned paperwork or face heavy fines.

The government argued the change was meant to crack down on tax
evasion by big business, but vendors say they cannot comply with this
requirement because their suppliers usually refuse to provide them
with receipts and invoices. The revised law was to come into force in
2014 October but after a series of demonstrations staged by vendors
in September and October the government was forced to postpone its
enforcement until February 1.

After fresh protests this year Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan met
with protesters and reportedly agreed to postpone the enforcement of
the law until July 1.

The lawmakers today supported the postponement motion by 79 votes,
19 MPs abstained.

One day earlier nongovernment parliament factions Prosperous Armenia,
Heritage, Orinats Yerkir and Armenian National Congress said they would
abstain from voting, since they are disagreed to the postponement until
July 1, but would not vote against it since this is still better than
current rules.

Armen Rustamyan, head of Armenian Revolutionary Federation/
Dashnaktsutiun faction, said that its MPs will vote in favor of the
bill, since they are against the current rules. –0—–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress