Friday,
Reducing Tax Burden ‘Key’ To Economic Growth
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenian Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazian
The Armenian government plans to reduce the burden of direct taxes as it
considers it to be key to economic growth, according to a minister.
“But lower direct taxes at least in the short term and medium term imply risks
that there will be less budget revenues,” Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazian
told journalists on Thursday.
“As we also have a ceiling for our debt, we would have to refocus from taxing
capital and revenues to taxing consumption,” he added.
At the same time, according to Janjughazian, the government has found it
reasonable to refrain from changing the value added tax, which is the main
source of revenues, since it contains risks from the point of view of the
country’s competitiveness.
“There are not so many options left and in taxes on consumption it is excise
taxes and taxes on certain types of activities where the tax burden can be
revised. Somewhere the rise will be higher, somewhere it will be lower…It’s
another question whether it is good or bad,” he said.
Workers of a number of currency exchange offices and pawnshops have been
holding protests against a considerable rise in their license fees envisaged by
the package of planned reforms.
Opponents have criticized the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for
his economic policies in this regard, claiming that the changes will hit small
and medium-sized enterprises.
The Armenian National Congress party of ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian, which
has supported the Pashinian government politically, joined the criticism on
Wednesday by outlining possible risks that it said the planned reform of the
tax legislation poses to small and medium-sized businesses. In its statement
the extra-parliamentary party particularly pointed out risks of raising license
fees for currency exchange offices and lending organizations.
Meanwhile, Minister Janjughazian said: “Any change may lead to the change in
the behavior of the consumer, and hence it may affect a particular type of
activity or an entity engaged in that type of activity. It is impossible to
have regulation that will have an equal effect on all and all will be equally
satisfied with it.”
As to whether the government may consider lowering the tax burden in connection
with certain discontent in some sectors, Janjughazian said: “As discussions are
not over yet, changes are possible in any direction.”
The minister said the draft amendments to the tax legislation may be sent to
parliament as early as next week.
Armenian Security Chief Vows ‘High-Profile Revelations’ Soon
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Artur Vanetsian, director of the National Security Service of Armenia, 22
March, 2019
Armenian’s National Security Service (NSS) will present new “high-profile
revelations” soon as part of its ongoing anticorruption efforts, the powerful
agency’s chief told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday.
Artur Vanetsian was in parliament today to present a report and answer
questions from lawmakers sitting on the standing committee on defense and
national security.
To the observation that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian recently voiced his
dissatisfaction with the lowered efficiency of law-enforcement agencies’ fight
against corruption, Vanetsian said: “I am also dissatisfied with the work of
the law-enforcement agencies, especially the NSS, because the pace of the work
that we did at the beginning of our activities has somewhat declined.”
As for the reasons, the NSS director explained it by the fact that “the legal
basis should be very firm so that no speculation can be possible about our work
afterwards.”
“We have been acting strictly in conformity with the law and tried to do
everything in order that all requirements of the law are met,” said Vanetsian.
“But there will be high-profile revelations in the near future,” he added,
without elaborating.
In presenting his report to the parliamentary committee Vanetsian repeated that
since last May when he took over as NSS director there has been an increase in
the number of applicants seeking jobs in the agency. He also raised the issue
of providing more training facilities for NSS employees to keep improving their
qualifications domestically.
Former Official Skips Interrogation In Panama Papers Probe
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Parliament deputy Mihran Poghosian at a session of the National
Assembly in Yerevan, 19 May 2017
A former senior official and lawmaker invited by the Special Investigation
Service (SIS) for questioning as part of a reopened investigation into his
alleged secret offshore accounts exposed by the Panama Papers has skipped the
interrogation, a spokesperson said on Friday.
Marina Ohanjanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Mihran Poghosian did not
appear for the planned interrogation, explaining that he is currently abroad.
Poghosian asked the investigators to question him in a video conference, but
the SIS refused to do so “since no such procedure is envisaged by law”, the
spokeswoman said.
“The body conducting the investigation again invited Poghosian for questioning,
suggesting that he indicate the date of his return to Armenia,” Ohanjanian
added.
The SIS representative reported no other details related to the case.
Citing the leaked Panama Papers documents, the Hetq.am investigative
publication reported in April 2016 that Poghosian, the then head of an Armenian
state body enforcing court rulings, controls three shadowy companies registered
in Panama. It said Poghosian had the exclusive right to manage Swiss bank
accounts of two of those firms.
After initially denying the report, Poghosian announced his resignation later
that month. But he stopped short of admitting any wrongdoing.
The SIS launched a criminal investigation in connection with the Hetq.am report
shortly after Poghosian’s resignation. It closed the criminal case in January
2017, saying that it found no evidence of Poghosian’s involvement in “illegal
entrepreneurial activity.”
Poghosian had close ties to then President Serzh Sarkisian and his Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK). He was elected to the former Armenian parliament on the
HHK ticket in April 2017.
Armenian media outlets had for years accused Poghosian of having extensive
business interests. In particular, the 42-year-old was widely regarded as the
main owner of Katrin Group, a company that enjoyed a de facto monopoly on
banana imports to Armenia until last year’s “velvet revolution” that toppled
Sarkisian. He always denied owning any lucrative businesses.
Shortly after the revolution the State Revenue Committee (SRC) launched a tax
evasion inquiry into Katrin Group and three other firms linked to it. They
promptly admitted failing to pay a total of 600 million drams ($1.2 million) in
taxes, leading the SRC to stop the criminal proceedings.
The SRC reopened the probe a few weeks later, however, saying that it has
discovered evidence of greater tax evasion on the part of the four business
entities.
Coverage Of Armenian Army Insurance Fund Further Extended
Armenia - Armenian army soldiers are lined up at a military base in Tavush
province, 2Dec2016
A special army insurance fund set up to pay compensations to the families of
soldiers who die or become gravely disabled while on combat duty will extend
its coverage, the Fund’s Board of Trustees decided at its meeting on Friday.
Originally, the compensation scheme financed from the fund to which every
working Armenian citizen contributes 1,000 drams (just over $2) per month
covered cases registered from 2017 onward.
Under the new government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian the fund last year
extended the coverage of its compensation scheme to incidents that happened
also in 2015 and 2016.
The compensation scheme allows the closest relatives of soldiers killed or
gravely wounded while on combat duty to receive 10 million drams (about
$20,600). Wounded soldiers suffering from less serious disabilities are paid 5
million drams. In addition to these one-off payouts, the families of killed or
maimed army officers, contract soldiers and conscripts are to receive monthly
pensions ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 drams for 20 years.
The Army Insurance Fund’s Board of Trustees decided today that beginning on
April 1 benefits will also be paid to servicemen who were killed or wounded in
the period from 2008 to 2014.
The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Minister of
Defense Davit Tonoyan.
During the meeting Varuzhan Avetikian, the Fund’s executive director, presented
a summary report on compensations and contributions made since the beginning of
2018, stressing that at the moment the total amount of money in the fund has
exceeded 14 billion drams (about $28.8 million), while the total amount of
compensations has totaled 941 million drams.
According to the Ministry of Defense, earlier a decision was also made to
consider the possibility of extending the coverage of the compensation scheme
to incidents that occurred before 2008.
Members of the Board also pointed out that the assets raised through the
management of the fund in 2018 exceeded the amount of compensations, which they
said “once again proves the high efficiency of the Army Insurance Fund’s
activities.”
Armenian Investigators Probing Allegations Of 1998 Election Fraud
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Vahan Shirkhanian, a former deputy defense minister of Armenia, 20 March, 2019
The Special Investigation Service (SIS) is looking into claims made recently by
a former senior official about massive falsifications during the 1998
presidential election that allegedly gave victory to then Prime Minister Robert
Kocharian, a spokesperson said on Friday.
Marina Ohanjanian said probing other assertions that former deputy defense
minister Vahan Shirkhanian made in an open letter earlier this week, including
that Nairi Hunanian, the leader of a group that carried out a deadly attack on
the Armenian parliament in 1999, was a National Security Service (NSS) agent,
is “outside the scope of the SIS’s powers.”
Meanwhile, earlier on Friday director of the NSS Artur Vanetsian neither
confirmed, nor denied Shirkhanian’s claim that Hunanian was an agent, referring
journalists to the SIS that he said led the relevant investigation. He also
said that the entire related information will be published after a “special
procedure.”
In his letter Shirkhanian, who occupied the senior Defense Ministry post in the
1990s and is now facing coup charges in a trial of a group of individuals
arrested in 2015 and accused of plotting to seize power, claimed that the then
head of the NSS Gorik Hakobian presented to Kocharian and military prosecutor
Gagik Jhangirian “a file with the case of NSS agent Nairi Hunanian”, but that
file later allegedly disappeared.
Hunanian led an attack in which then Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsian, Parliament
Speaker Karen Demirchian and six other senior lawmakers and government members
were killed. Hunanian and five other members of his group were convicted on
charges related to the attack and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003.
Another member of the group was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but did not
survive his term.
In his letter Shirkhanian also claimed that Kocharian falsified the outcome of
the runoff of the 1998 presidential election with Demirchian, a former leader
of Soviet Armenia who made a political comeback and reemerged as quite a
popular figure less than a decade after the USSR’s collapse.
Demirchian conceded defeat and later allied himself with then powerful defense
minister Sargsian. The duo went on to win parliamentary elections the following
year. Their tandem remained powerful in the country for several months until
the October 27, 1999 terrorist attack in which both were assassinated.
Armenian opposition groups for years alleged that despite the arrest and trial
of the immediate perpetrators of the attack its real mastermind has never been
revealed.
Kocharian, who served as president for two consecutive five-year terms in
1998-2008, is currently in pretrial detention on charges of overthrowing the
constitutional order in connection with the 2008 post-election crackdown on the
opposition during which eight demonstrators and two security officers were
killed.
Kocharian denies the accusations as politically motivated.
New Envoy Reaffirms U.S. Commitment To Assisting ‘Sovereign Armenia’
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with newly appointed U.S.
Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy, Yerevan,
The newly appointed ambassador of the United States to Armenia has reaffirmed
her government’s commitment to assisting “sovereign Armenia” as she was
received by the South Caucasus nation’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on
Friday.
“Thankful for the warm welcome, [Ambassador] Lynne Tracy said she was honored
to meet with Prime Minister Pashinian and reaffirmed the U.S. Government’s
strong commitment to assisting sovereign Armenia in implementing its democratic
agenda and anti-corruption efforts, dealing with economic and regional
bottlenecks, as well as in matters of international security,” a statement
published on the Armenian premier’s official website reads.
“The U.S. Ambassador gave assurances that during her tenure she would make all
necessary efforts to promote the development of bilateral economic
cooperation,” it adds.
According to the same source, welcoming the newly appointed U.S. ambassador,
Pashinian emphasized that the Armenian government is “interested in the
continued development of partnership with the United States, including in the
political and economic spheres.”
The Armenian prime minister said that “Armenia is consistently heading along
the path of democratic reforms by fighting against corruption and monopolies,
promoting human rights and freedom of speech.”
In this respect, Pashinian stressed the importance of building closer ties of
cooperation with the United States and implementing joint programs in the
aforementioned areas, the statement reads.
According to the premier’s official website, during their meeting Pashinian and
Tracy discussed a number of issues that are on the agenda of U.S.-Armenian
relations and exchanged views on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement
process and other regional issues of mutual interest.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” reports that Yerevan’s prosecutor has asked Mayor Hayk Marutian to
provide documents and data on construction or lease of property located in
territories of common use in the city center. “In fact, the law-enforcement
system has finally got down to inspecting the legality of actions of the former
Yerevan authorities, a move that many have been eager to see, because the
center of the capital for years has consistently been distorted,” the paper
writes.
The editor of “Aravot” writes: “In Armenia, no doubt, there are political
groups and politicians that in one way or another associate their aspirations
with the support of Russia. Many of them are working closely with the political
circles of this country, receive or send “messages”. “To hand over
Nagorno-Karabakh to the Russian mandate” is among such messages. The proposal,
in my opinion, is unacceptable, because if you voluntarily give up some part of
your sovereignty, the one who receives it will feel more free to impose on you
one decision or another. I think that, on the contrary, one must strengthen the
sovereignty of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and in this regard the efforts of
the prime minister to engage representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh in the
negotiations are correct in principle.”
“Zhamanak” reports on the statement of three political parties in the
parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh where they speak about an independent and
sovereign state and a prospect of a united Armenian state. The parties stress
that other processes today are “artificial and dangerous”. “The statement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh parliamentarians, no doubt, concerns, on the one hand, the
recent initiative of the Sasna Tsrer party to start the collection of
signatures in support of Nagorno-Karabakh’s incorporation into Armenia and, on
the other hand, the statement of former Karabakh defense army commander Samvel
Babayan’s statement about transferring the Nagorno-Karabakh issue to the
Russian mandate,” the daily concludes.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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