The government has submitted to the parliament a package of bills, the adoption of which will enable the government and businessmen supported by them build monopolies in at least 2 more sectors. By this bill the government is suggesting to limit the number of pawn shops and currency exchange points. The annual tax levied from currency exchange points, according to the bill, will increase from 50.000 to 1 million AMD. And the tax of the pawn shops was increased 60 times, reaching 6 million from 100.000 AMD. It is not hard to guess that after the adoption of the bill the sector of the currency exchange points and pawn shops, which operate in a more or less competitive environment, will go in the hands of a limited number of people or banks. It means it will appear in the full control of the government. It is evident that most of the currency exchange point and pawn shop owners will not be able to be these taxes in such big amounts and will get to shut down their businesses in the framework of the government program aimed at “supporting small and medium businesses.”
