In this new list there are some companies that have increased their marks rapidly. Last year the biggest tax payer was the copper and molybdenum factory of Zangezur, which paid 980.394.000 dram tax. “Armentel” is in the second place in both these lists. As for third place, the situation is very interesting here: this time “Flesh” company has moved to the third place when it was in the 40th place last year. But this company is not the only gas importer that has appeared in the list of the biggest tax payers and has rapidly gone up. Besides this company, “EximPetrolGroup” moved to the 12th place during 3 months when it used to be in the 68th place. As for the “CityPetrolService” belonging to Ashot Salazaryan, it is in the 7th place now. The “ArsOil” company belonging to Gourgen Arsenyan, which trades cigarettes, it is in the 17th place now, when it used to be in the 196th place. As for the “FlitFood” company belonging to MP Samvel Alexanyan, it has moved to 5th place from the 28th place. The 8th place is occupied by the “Electrical Power Stations of Armenia” company of Chubais, the 9th and 11th places are occupied by the “International Masis Tabak” and “Grand Tobacco” companies of Hrant Vardanyan. As for the “Mika Armenia Trading” company belonging to Mika Baghdasarov, it is in the 13th place now.
What is the reason for these changes? Definitely the first factor is the season. According to some statistical information 40 % of world trade is done in December. So this is the reason why the turnover of trade companies has rapidly increased at the end of the year. As for these companies, most of them are trade companies. But there is another factor here too: it is the income tax, which is calculated only after the end of the financial year. So we can suppose that those companies that moved to the first places rapidly got super-profit. But this may be absurd, because this time the taxation services have included a small detail in this last list. Wheareas in the previous list of tax payers they separately wrote down the quantity of the paid income and profit taxes, this time only the following is written: “Just taxes, included income and profit taxes”.
We must pay attention to the meeting of the president with the taxation body officials at the end of last year. Actually the president seriously got mad at them for not providing the adequate amount of tax payments to the budget. Maybe this is one of the reasons that Armenian businessmen “became rich” rapidly in such a short period: because, based on experience, after the president makes remarks, state bodies don’t hesitate in correcting the situation in a short period.
We shouldn’t also forget about the political purpose. Some of these biggest tax payers may use the fact of being involved in the list of the biggest taxpayers for pre-election campaign purposes during the coming parliamentary elections.
How can we consider this logical? How could these companies fill the last places and move up in such a short period? Maybe it doesn’t sound logical now, but it will be already clear during the 2007 parliamentary elections.
By the way, it is worth to mention that recently, the head of the state taxation committee, Felix Tsolakyan called these companies moving to the first places in short terms as “figure painters”.