Yesterday the State Tax Service (STS) released the list of the 300 greatest tax payers of the first quarter of 2008. Karabakh Telecom occupies the first place with its 6.8 billion AMD paid taxes, which during the same period of 2007 occupied only the 4th place. Last year the first place was occupied by the ArmRosGazProm, which in the first quarter of the current year paid 6.7 billion AMD and occupied the second place. These companies are succeeded by the Armentel (3.1 billion), the Copper Processing Factory of Zangezur (3 billion) and the Flash (2.4 billion). The full list of the other companies was yesterday published in the media and there is no need to advert to it. The Customs Service of Armenia decided not to lag behind and thus released its own list of the 100 companies, which made the greatest payments. The STS list also has a separate column for the customs payments. Therefore the same information is repeated in the Customs Service list. However, it is not a problem as repetition is the mother of good knowledge. The customs list is also useful because the “hit parade” is prepared only based on customs payments. The leader of that Hit Parade is the Flash gasoline importing company belonging to Barsegh Baglaryan (2.3 billion AMD). The second place occupies City Petrol Service (2.2 billion AMD). We will not present the whole list this time and will probably advert to it in our next editions. As of the Flash and the City Petrol Service it seems that everything is normal with them as compared to the last year their customs fees were increased. The importer of the Phillip Morris cigarettes the Pares Armenia company paid less taxes in this quarter and the reasons are quite understandable – 50% of the company belongs to the Sukisayans and the importation rates have decreased after the last presidential elections. Compared to the last year Karabakh Telecom paid less customs fees, which is explained by the fact that the company is not an importer and may from time to time increase or decrease the amount of the imported goods it may need for its own purposes. The most distinct one is the sugar importer Salex Group. Neither did the sugar price increase nor did the migration rates (as much as we know). It means the consumption rates have not decreased. In this regard it becomes quite understandable why the Salex Group compared to the 2.1 billion AMD of the last year paid 1.19 billion AMD to the state budget for this year. The only explanation is that th Armenians lost their love to the sweets or maybe after the elections 50% of RA population secretly left the country without informing the relevant bodies about its. By the way, it will be interesting to compare these data with the data of the previous years. In that case it will be visible whether the Customs Service is seriously determined to fight against corruption or maybe all this is just imitation.
