Thursday, 19 January 2017
Karen Karapetyan: “Soft administration can and should be applied only to law-abiding taxpayers; any manifestation of tax evasion must be prevented.”
A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan.
Before discussing the issues on the agenda, Prime Minister gave a number of instructions.
At the cabinet sitting of September 15, 2016, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan instructed the State Revenue Committee by the Government of the Republic of Armenia to conduct tax audits only with risky business entities and turn to small and medium enterprises only in case of extreme necessity.
Concerning the question at hand, Prime Minister Karapetyan said the State Revenue Committee indicates that many taxpayers seem to have misinterpreted the Prime Minister’s instruction. In particular, we have the following negative effects: understatement of sales, turnover and prices, number of staff and actual wages, supply of goods without payment documents, inflated spending and, finally, irregular operation of cash registers.
In this regard, the Prime Minister said, “I consider it necessary to explain that the so-called soft administration can and should be applied only to law-abiding taxpayers. Any manifestation of tax evasion, regardless of the type of taxpayer, must be prevented.” In this connection, the Prime Minister instructed the State Revenue Committee:
1. Keep under control over the above phenomena, using the tools prescribed by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia; submit quarterly reports about violations to the Control Service of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia. Periodically publish details of both law-abiding and non-conscientious, offending the taxpayers.
2. Those taxpayers who will allow the SRC online access to their accounting systems and will voluntarily correct the inaccuracies recorded by the SRC shall be exempt of annual inspections. The activities of such taxpayers should be assessed through cameral studies, measurements and other administration tools.
The Head of Government instructed the heads of all government departments to make an inventory of investment programs and to submit to the Government Staff a list of those projects due for investment in 2017 with a clear indication of the volume of the projected investment. Karen Karapetyan instructed the Minister of Education and Science to submit proposals within a month’s time for improving the teaching of foreign languages in secondary schools, and make out a timetable for their implementation.
The next directive issued by the Prime Minister sought to stimulate business activity and reduce pressure on the budget of local communities. To this end, Karen Karapetyan instructed the Minister of Territorial Administration and Development to work out within a month a set of methodological guidelines and sample contracts for providing community services through the private sector (delegating these services to the private sector). The Marz Governors were given three months to prepare and submit to the Government pilot programs on community-private sector partnership in cooperation with the communities.
Minister-Chief of Government Staff David Haroutunyan reported progress in the implementation of the assignments issued by the Prime Minister during the preceding cabinet sittings.
“In the period from September 15, 2016 to 12 January, 2017, numerous instructions were issued at the meetings of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, the bulk of which focused on policy implementation. In this context, the ministries were supposed to draft corresponding legal acts. I am now reporting that a total of 101 legal acts were developed during this period, of which 51 have already been adopted. Some of these acts featured draft laws, Government resolutions and Prime Minister’s decisions, in some cases they represented ministerial orders,” David Haroutunyan said.
The Government accepted the proposal to conclude an agreement in the form of exchange of notes between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Armenia on amendment to the agreement signed on September 25, 2000 between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Armenia on mutual visa-free trips of citizens of the Russian Federation and citizens of the Republic of Armenia.
Changes to the Agreement provides for Russian citizens to enter and exit the territory of the Republic of Armenia, as well as within the territory of the Republic of Armenia and the movement on the territory of the Republic of Armenia on the passport of the citizen of the Russian Federation (internal passport).
The Government next approved a proposal to conclude an agreement between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the United Arab Emirates to waive the visa requirement for the citizens of both countries. The proposed instrument corresponds to Armenia’s foreign policy and international commitments.
