Yesterday president Kocharyan had a meeting with the chairs of the taxation and customs departments and told them that they need to work hard and “be a little stronger and stricter” in order to be able to implement the requirements of the budget of 2007. The president told them that they are not politicians, they should not be involved in politics in any manner and the only thing they have to do is to implement the requirements of the budget connected with its incomes.
It is worth mentioning that the budget of 2007 is a pre-election budget and they need to be stricter so that they can fulfill it. Definitely by saying “stricter” they mean taxing the shady companies and businesses that are not taxed now. Notwithstanding, it is not a secret that pre-election campaigning expenses are mainly covered by those businesses that don’t pay taxes but provide financial support for political advocacy campaigning. Maybe the taxation and customs departments are not connected with politics and pre-election campaigning, but the companies they intend to tax strictly are connected with it since they provide financial support for campaigning purposes. Such companies cannot both provide financial support for advocacy campaigning and meantime pay all their dues and taxes. In a word, definitely the mentioned “restricted” policy will mainly cover small and medium businesses again.
