Thursday,
Yerevan Residents Protest Against Waste-Disposal Crisis
• Anush Muradian
A group of citizens on Thursday held a protest in front of the office of a
private company engaged in garbage disposal in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.
According to the demonstrators, the Lebanese-run company has provided poor
services for the city, leaving it littered with garbage throughout the summer
months.
Along with other protesters Arusik Mkrtchian brought with her a plastic bag
with garbage that she said she had collected in the yard of her residential
building that had not been removed from there for days.
“They do not collect it anyway, that’s why I’ve decided to bring it myself,”
said Mkrtchian. “I live in the city center. This situation can simply cause an
epidemic outbreak. It is disgusting to see this garbage and smell it. People
don’t know what to do. The same disgraceful situation is everywhere.”
The problem of Sanitek’s poor waste disposal has repeatedly been raised by
Armenian authorities in recent weeks. Last month the Yerevan municipality
imposed a fine of over $25,000 on the company and warned it about stricter
sanctions ahead unless the situation improved. Yet, the situation does not
appear to have improved since then.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian also addressed the issue in his weekend live
Facebook broadcast. He said that the government was concerned about the
situation that he described as unacceptable. He said it was the consequence of
the “short-sighted policy” of the Yerevan mayor’s office.
“A [waste disposal] monopoly has, in fact, been created in the city, and poor
management in this system in recent years has led to the problems we experience
today,” said Pashinian. “We must draw serious conceptual conclusions. I think
one of the options may be that we place several companies and not just one in
charge of garbage collection in the capital.”
Pashinian also advocated the construction of a recycling plant in Armenia to
solve the problems of waste dumps.
In explaining the deterioration of its work several weeks ago a Sanitek manager
said the company experienced shortage of garbage trucks that he said frequently
broke down because of bad roads leading to the landfill site. Sanitek also
claimed excessive damage to its trash cans caused by residents that increases
overall costs for the company.
Kristina Hovannisian, an assistant to the Sanitek executive director, met with
participants of today’s protest. She said that the executive director was not
in town and promised that the company will hold a press conference at the end
of next week to answer all questions.
Armenia Sets Stricter Punishment For Incentives To Voters
The Armenian parliament in session (archive photo)
Armenian lawmakers on Thursday voted unanimously to set a stricter criminal
punishment for giving people various incentives to vote for a particular
candidate, party or programs with the offer of cash or somehow else during
elections and referendums.
Sixty-six members of the 101-seat National Assembly, who attended the special
session, backed, in the first reading, the government-drafted bill amending a
number of laws, including the Criminal Code, to that effect.
Deputy Justice Minister Artur Hovannisian, who presented the bill in
parliament, called for measures to be taken to exclude pressure, vote buying
and other illegal influences on citizens’ expression of will during electoral
processes.
“We really need to make sure that citizens make their choices freely,” he said.
The bill envisages criminalization of electoral bribes in any form - be it a
promise of cash or provision of cash on preferential terms, provision of food,
services or other incentives under the guise of charity – during campaigning
periods.
“Today it is also considered illegal, but now only administrative
responsibility is envisaged for that, with the highest penalty set at 2.5
million drams (about $5,150). We find that such deeds amount to vote buying.
And today vote buying is criminally punishable,” Hovannisian explained.
Under the amendments, the violation may land the offender in prison for up to
six years.
The vote on the amendments in the second and final reading is due on September
7.
Pashinian Government Mulls Flat Income Tax
• Suren Musayelyan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a cabinet meeting in Yerevan,
19 July 2018.
Describing the current levels of taxes as “heavy” for citizens and the tax
legislation as “bad and encouraging tax evasion”, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian on Thursday suggested at least two options to tackle the issue.
In a live Facebook broadcast following today’s government session Pashinian
advocated a flat income tax system that he said would be fair to all and would
close loopholes for employers to evade taxes, while stimulating the growth of
salaries.
Currently Armenia has a three-tier income tax system, implying that workers who
get a monthly salary of up to 150,000 drams (about $310) pay an income tax at
the level of 23 percent, those whose monthly salaries are in the range between
150,000 and 2 million (about 4,100) drams pay a 25-percent tax and those whose
salaries are higher than that are taxed 36 percent on anything that is above 2
million drams.
According to Pashinian, the government initially considered about a dozen
variants of reforming the tax legislation, but eventually arrived at just two
options, with the first being the introduction of a two-tier income tax system.
Under this system, citizens receiving a monthly salary of up to 250,000 drams
(about $515) would be taxed 23 percent, while those receiving higher salaries
would be taxed 25 percent of their income.
“This system has its logic, which is social justice. Those who will get more
will pay more. On the other hand, in that case employers would still not be
interested in raising salaries of their employees,” Pashinian said.
In contrast, according to the prime minister, the introduction of a flat income
tax of 23 percent for all, given that it is equivalent to the sum of the profit
tax and dividend tax, would help solve several problems, including
simplification of tax laws for potential foreign investors.
Pashinian said that the government hopes the additional revenues of citizens
enabled by this reform would return to the country’s economy and will, in
particular, help develop small and medium-sized business.
At the same time, Pashinian said that he also backed the idea of the income tax
being cut by at least 0.5 percentage points every year. “In five years or so
our income tax rate would be at 20 percent,” said the prime minister, adding
that in his opinion this would provide an additional impetus to economic growth.
The prime minister also announced plans to lower profit and dividend taxes for
non-resident investors to make them equal to those paid by local investors. “We
think that we should not discriminate between resident and non-resident
investors for the simple reason that among non-resident entrepreneurs there are
many Diaspora Armenians… Besides, we think that such discrimination between
foreign and local investors is not a good message in terms of improving the
investment environment,” he said.
Pashinian said his government is ready to hear proposals from all stakeholders
and promised to continue to present to the public all ideas that his cabinet
has in terms of tax reforms.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” writes: “Ex-president Robert Kocharian’s lawyer stated that his
client has nothing to do with the March 1, 2008 predawn action of security
forces against demonstrators in Yerevan’s Freedom Square in connection with
which the Special Investigative Service has launched a new criminal probe. The
lawyer said Kocharian did not give an order for a special operation. If it
continues like this, the day is near when Kocharian himself or through his
lawyers will declare that on March 1, 2008 he was not even the president of the
Republic of Armenia and did not occupy any other high-ranking post. An
interesting picture arises – the supreme commander-in-chief had nothing to do
with the order on barracking the troops and had nothing to do with the police’s
special operation. And what did he have to do with then as the supreme
commander-in chief?”
“Hraparak” writes in its editorial: “Campaigning in Yerevan municipal elections
will kick off on September 10 and will last 12 days, which is too short a
period for candidates to duly present themselves to voters. Perhaps, this is
the reason why the political parties and groups running in the elections have
already begun to openly campaign despite the fact that this is a gross
violation of the law. True, the head of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC),
who is in a terrified condition awaiting his resignation, gives assurances that
there are no violations, but it is patently clear that politicians are not
allowed to campaign before the official start of the campaigning period. In a
normal country such a violation would be enough to cancel the election results
afterwards at one of the candidates’ request. When once the then ruling
Republican Party placed election banners in the city with large images of top
candidates several days before the official start of the campaigning period the
media and the public kicked up a row. The CEC then also left the matter without
attention, as the election body has never done anything against the will of the
governing party.”
In an interview with “168 Zham” political analyst Vadim Dubnov comments on the
latest developments in Armenian-Russian relations. “Many say that there are
tensions, there is a crisis in Armenian-Russian relations. But I am not of this
opinion. I see no reasons for that. I think that Moscow subjects [Prime
Minister Nikol] Pashinian to a little trolling as recently it has worked in
this genre. But no snags should be looked for in it,” he says.
“Aravot” writes: “The problem of waste disposal persists in Yerevan. The city
continues to be buried in piles with garbage. It even reminds some of the once
mafia-run Italian city of Naples that experienced a waste-disposal crisis
several years ago. True, the local mafia stood behind that crisis as it was
financially not interested in garbage to be removed, but protests took pace
there to get a solution to the problem, people called for shooting all those
responsible. And in Yerevan after the ‘revolution of love and solidarity’, and
even before that there have not been any Italian passions. One can say that we
have an atmosphere of ‘garbage and solidarity’.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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