Wednesday, 31 May 2006
Today the Business Development Support Council by Republic of Armenia Prime Minister has met, chaired by Council Chairman, Republic of Armenia Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan.
The meeting reviewed the new structure of businessmen included in the Council on a rotational basis from the list endorsed by RA President, as well as questions related to Council membership rotation by decision of Republic of Armenia Prime Minister, formation of new Council working groups and principles for election of heads of working groups. The meeting inter alia heard the progress report on the course of execution previous assignments made by the Council.
In the structure of the considerably expanded Council, which includes 50 members representing wide layers of society, non-governmental organizations and representatives of the unions of legal persons, the next 8 members have been included on a rotational basis.
On another agenda item concerning the formation of new working groups by the Council and the principles for selection of heads of working groups, it was noted that, as proposed by Council membership, 3 permanent working groups had been established so far: export support and stimulation, regulation of tax and customs administration, legislative initiatives and development of normative documents. The heads of groups were elected and, account taken of Presidential Decree PD-60-O dated March 20, 2006, the structure of the Council had been modified and expanded and there was a need in forming new working groups and electing respective heads. The Council has decided to create an interim task force instead of a limited membership-based standing working group for discussion of topical issues so as to involve all interested members of the Council in the discussions.
Concerning a course of performance of the assignments given at the previous session, it was reported that, as agreed with the secretariat and together with the Securities Commission, the Ministry of Finance and Economy had conducted teamwork to reduce the number of reports required to economic operators by state and administrative statistics-dealing entities, specifications of statistics flows, ruling out of duplications, unification of the methodologies used, as well as on questions concerning the exchange of statistical data between public agencies for preparation of a draft of Republic of Armenia Prime Minister's order which had been sent out all interested sides for consideration. Following the discussions, the final version of the draft of Republic of Armenia Prime Minister's order had been prepared and submitted to the Government Staff. As a result, Premier's decree No. 509-N was issued on July 9, 2005, "On reduction of number of reports submitted by economic operators was accepted, specification of their flows and ruling out of duplications of reports submitted to various agencies". According to another assignment, the Ministry of Finance and Economy had initiated the formation of a corresponding working group involving representatives of the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, State Tax Service by the Government, National Statistical Service, and Securities Commission. Following detailed analysis of information received, when due hereunder, the working group had formulated its findings and presented proposals to today's session for discussion.
According to other assignment, RA Minister of Trade and Economic Development should in a 15 day's period, together with the interested representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, State Tax Service by the Government and the Business Development Support Council discuss still not settled questions connected to the decision passed on December 2, 2004 of RA Government No. 1923-N "On representation of documents for offset or return of the sums on account of other tax obligations of tax bearers by the operations taxable under the zero rate of the tax to the added cost, the order of granting of the information confirming validity of the sums, subject to return by these operations," and submit to Republic of Armenia Prime Minister proposals for their decision.
It has been reported that in the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, a meeting had been held with participation of interested bodies and BDSC, at which the results of corresponding offers were formulated. They were sent to the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, to the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the State Tax Service and the State Customs Committee by the Government for consideration. As a result, several proposals were received, which as summed up by the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, were deemed expedient to continue to be discussed over between the bodies responsible for development and realization of tax policy. The Prime Minister instructed to pay attention to the dynamics of returning the above-stated sums to economic agents, with a focus placed on the number of economic agents receiving these sums in addition to the size of returned sums.
On another question of the agenda concerning the proposals of the working group set up by Republic of Armenia Prime Minister's decision 509-N on reduction of the number of reports submitted by economic operators, specification of their flows and ruling out of duplications in submitted reports, it has been reported that corresponding state bodies in the Ministry of Finance and Economy had been presented a performance report from economic agents trading organizations and individual businessmen, giving statistical data within the framework of conducting the administrative register according to article 13 of RA law "On State Statistics." During the study of information, certain conclusions and proposals were formed in which basis the question of expediency of gathering of the same reports various bodies lays, their reductions and association have been formulated in case of technical recurrence of registration data. In a result offers on reduction of the data collected by various bodies are developed.
At a mention of the works executed in this direction, also it has been marked, that in the Ministry of Finance and Economy, together with representatives of State Tax Service by RA Government and the Securities Commissions had been organized working discussions during which the possibility of financial reporting required to tax-payers was discussed, as well as the question of expediency of entering instead of it in tax declarations of the corresponding additions necessary for realization of the tax control. In a result the State tax service at Government RA has found expedient to reduce the financial reports represented to tax bodies by tax-payers, limiting them to only forms N 1 and N 2, and to amend the respective laws of the Republic of Armenia.. It has been noted that is in general reduced about 20 reports, that even more facilitates process of representation of reports by managing subjects.
Concerning other item of the above-stated decision of the Prime Minister, it has been reported that the Securities Commission, having discussed the possibility of reduction of repetitions of requirements of reception of data on accounting issues, from the persons who are carrying out professional work on a securities market and the automatically adjusting organizations, having analyzed the present situation, had found it possible to reduce the number of copies of reports on the accounting issues subject to representation. The received results about reduction of quantity of reports have been submitted at session of the Business Development Support Council.
