Thursday, 10 February 2011
Government to be penalized for default
A cabinet sitting was held, chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
The government approved the procedure to follow in paying fines and penalties for delays in the refund of overpayments and/or other amounts. A first-ever estimate of penalties due for the period up to January 1, 2011 will be out by May, 1, 2011. Stating that the government is thereby going to apply stricter sanctions for VAT refund arrears, Tigran Sargsyan noted that no incidences of VAT refund delays or non-payments have been recorded over the last two years and added that they will be ruled out ahead.
The Executive passed the rules to be complied with in conducting procurement transactions specifying that cross-country procurements inferior to AMD 50mn will be made according to the procedure prescribed by the head of the ordering organization, with the ones exceeding the stated amount having to be made under the government-backed procedure. This was said to be a transitional measure necessitated by the fact that PIUs are currently being integrated with the ministries.
The government amended a previous decree to bring the medical services provided in Armenia into conformity with international standards as much as possible. This is supposed to provide better conditions for the early warning, effective prevention and care of various diseases, as well as for the delivery of specialized health services to the population.
The government authorized Armenian NPP CJSC to use the NPP-owned apartment house in Medzamor town of Armavir marz as a means of payment for the purchase of State-owned shares with its subsequent handover to the local community on condition that the latter should donate the building to NPP staff as accommodation for 50 employees.
Whereas the population of wolves has seen a sharp growth in Armenia recently, the government passed an order to keep it under control and implement corresponding actions. For each killed wolf hunters will henceforth get a bonus of AMD 100 thousand from the proceeds of the AMD 10000.0 thousand worth of allocation available to the Ministry of Nature Protection. A similar measure was said to have been applied in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic leading to a sharp decrease in the number of wolves over a short span of time.
In a bid to ease the cross-country traffic of goods, vehicles and passengers, the cabinet backed the proposal on the signing of a government-to-government arrangement between Armenia and Georgia on the joint use of Bagratashen-Sadakhlo, Airum-Sadakhlo, Gogavan-Guguti and Bavra-Ninotsminda inland checkpoints. According to Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, it is a key instrument and everything should be done so that the process is finalized by the time the Georgian Prime Minister pays a working visit to Armenia this Tuesday.
The meeting next approved the statute of the Armenian side of the Armenia-Belarus intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation to lay down its goals, functions and rights, as well as the manner in which the panel’s Armenian constituent will be shaped and organized.
The government endorsed the proposal on the signing of economic cooperation-related arrangements and an intergovernmental agreement between Armenia and Iraq on encouragement and mutual protection of investments. The initiative comes from the Armenian side and is aimed at expanding economic relations between the two countries, as well as providing for Armenia’s participation in Iraqi rehabilitation programs.
The meeting has also discussed legislative matters and passed some other decisions.
