The notorious tax package once again returned to the government. On Monday the NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan didn’t submit the revised package for voting. And yesterday when addressing a Dashnak MP Vahan Hovhannisyan he said, “This thing needs to be handled with no rush, Mr. Hovhannisyan” and passed the floor to the government representative Souren Karayan. The latter asked the NA to delay the voting for 15 days.
Indeed, a lot has been written and will still be written especially in 15 days. But let us discuss this circumstance in a slightly different angle. Why did Mr. Abrahamyan address his words to Mr. Hovhannisyan? Because yesterday when it was declared that the tax package is going to be voted for the ARF was the most confused faction at the time. This is not clear. The package is aimed against the interests of major businessmen (although this is dubious as well). Any other party but the ARF as a socialistic party shouldn’t have appeared as a defender of large business rights. Indeed as the ARF members and other MPs who are against the tax package struggle in order not to give too many levers to the state to regulate the businesses in Armenia. It means that that their struggle is conceptual. One is almost going to cry after this. But when one starts to remember how the same criticizers would “defend” the property right of Bjni one gets really excited… No, not at all, we are not trying to justify this tax package or its authors. Everything is clear and simple. In the current conditions the package is meaningless for Armenia because both large businesses and tax inspectors are worth each other and can find a common language. This means that the tax inspector instead of supervising the activity of the company would eat kebab and at the end of the day would accept his part of money and go home. The anxiety of the owners of large businesses and MPs is quite understandable in this regard. Who would like to give extra money for kebab? All this comes to prove that the tax inspectors are evidently corrupt and this package won’t work in the conditions of wide-spread corruption. But when there is less corruption perhaps the use will be more. But when there is less corruption in this country there won’t be a need for such a package and an extra pair of eyes or an “agent” to watch your business function. In our country taxes are concealed mostly for the reason that if they don’t do it they won’t stand competition. Another part of the criticizers of the package speak in a more conceptual angle. This means that the state is strengthening its powers, mechanisms of controlling the entrepreneurs. And this contradicts the principles of liberal market. We should once again remember the case of Bjni in this regard. During the discussion of this issue there was no word about the package if we are not mistaken. But the government reached its goal by destroying an industry. And this happened when Bjni compared to other companies was functioning more honestly because there were political motives as well and Bjni had to be more careful because of its vulnerability. In the case of all the other large businesses of Armenia, the levers of the government are more or less powerful and they can always find methods to pressure on those (without the need of legislative or other amendments). It may sound ridiculous but maybe the package may be useful in the conditions of this broad-spread corruption. If a major businessmen Poghos Poghosyan hides 300 thousand USD from the state and uses this money to buy a house in Dubai then it would be better if he gave a part of this to a tax inspector so the latter spends this money in Armenia. He will buy locally-made cheese and brandy and will stimulate the Armenian production. In general, for the society there is no difference whether the stealer is businessman Poghos or tax inspector Martiros. In fact if the businessman is not hiding anything he doesn’t need to shun the presence of a tax inspector and there will be no need to bribe anybody. And if they are so concerned about the future of the country let them collect signatures against concrete corrupt officials. They can’t do this as they are corrupt. And we don’t only mean separate people or officials but hr whole system. And the criticizers themselves are a part of the system. We were right about to forget another important nuance. The businessmen claim that they are not much concerned about the inspection and supervision of their activities. All they fear is that this unknown tax inspector may steal their commercial secrets and share with competitors. They declare this and the TV companies which belong to them broadcast outlets, which slam and mar the tax inspectors. What competition? What competitors in Armenia when you speak about entrepreneurs? What kind of competition can we speak about if the 6-7 petrol importers of Armenia on the same day and hour decide to raise the gasoline price in Armenia from 310 to 330 AMD? Or what kind of technological secret can there be between cheese and sweet cotton? The unaware people may think that Armenia is a producer of hybrid cars and that there are several mobile phone producing companies, which apply spy methods to reveal the “know how-s.” Who do they think we are? In a word, this whole noise about the tax package is mildly said hideous. Regardless of whether it is going to be adopted or not, neither our economy will grow nor corruption will decrease. The ones, who have the backup of the government, will continue receiving super incomes by falsifying foreign brands and the ones, who don’t behave right can always be punished by the state (even if the tax legislation is written by angels). In this case, the question is, “what’s the point of the noise?” The point is that it creates an impression of a developed country. This means that the average citizens by watching the process would say what a great country we have in which the Parliament opposes the government. Oh, we are such a democratic country! The representative of the governmental party is now opposing the government initiative. And they are organizing an informational outflow, according to which the ruling Republican party is explaining and convincing the businessmen MPs to vote for the package but they don’t. In fact all this is from the fantasy genre. Who doesn’t know that the businessmen of our country are the most vulnerable group and there are chapters of cases prepared against them if need. And the rest is a well staged performance. If it’s not done for this then all this is done against Premier Tigran Sargsyan. Perhaps his “Armenian world” has started to get on some people’s nerves.