As we have already informed the government has submitted to the National Assembly a package of changes to the tax legislation, which anticipates increase of the tax load and increase of some of the defined taxes. Even the minister of finances Vache Gabrielyan confessed that this is going to happen, however it’s more like “rectification” of certain tax types rather than increase of the tax load. In reality, these changes can be named in short as “tax terror” and perhaps the secrecy of the legislative body on the submitted package is stipulated by this circumstance. Neither in government, nor in the National Assembly anybody dares to speak about this tax package and the changes included in it. At any rate, certain details are already circulated and those mildly-said might have sad consequences on our economy. According to our information the new tax package anticipates increase of over ten types of taxes, customs fees and other fees. For example, the government is planning to increase by 50% the excise tax for wines and beer of domestic production. According to another change the mandatory social security payment will be raised from 7,000 to 9,000 AMD. In the case of the VAT it is planned to cancel the existing privileges, which were used in the case of importation of technical appliances for the purpose of major investments. However, the tax changes were not limited by the abovementioned and the rest of the details will be illuminated in the near future. It is hard to say, whose idea was it to bring up these changes especially on the threshold of elections. In fact, these changes only solve one matter – provide the anticipated 101 billion AMD tax incomes for the state budget of the next year. This was stated by the prime minister. It’s clear that the governmental propaganda will demonstrate this change as “fight against the major businesses and black market” but it’s clear that as a result of this change not an average consumer will suffer more rather than the vodka or beer producing oligarch. Moreover, several governmental businessmen might be able to increase their profits in light of the tax legislation amendment. This will help them to cover the pre-election expenses. The problem, however, is that due to these changes the parties and candidates cannot ask for the ballots of the voters but can instead ask them to forgive them. As it’s known, it’s impossible to get parliamentary mandates by saying “sorry.” In a boarder meaning, the prime minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan will finally realize its long awaited vision of becoming Armenia’s last and the most virtual prime minister or become the head of some other sector.
