Thursday, 18 January 2018
Government Set to Address Property, Land Tax Arrears
A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan. Before proceeding to the agenda, the Prime Minister gave a number of instructions.
The Premier’s first instruction had to do with the problem of property and land tax arrears and overdue payments in other spheres. “Local self-government authorities, the State Revenue Committee and other public agencies have overdue taxes, duties and other mandatory payments from legal and natural persons. Since the measures taken so far have not solved the problem of fines and penalties, a systematic approach has to be developed, which will help cope with the problem of outstanding fiscal liabilities and check their growth in the future,” Karen Karapetyan said.
To this end, the Prime Minister instructed the ministers of Territorial Administration and Development, Agriculture, Finance, the Chairman of State Revenue Committee and the Marz governors to submit to the Government Staff a mechanism for the settlement of property, land tax arrears and other mandatory payments, including legislative amendments aimed at preventing such incidences in the future.
“We need to solve this problem once and for all, clean up the records and start from a clean page. We should not make of it a burden; arrears have been accumulated over the years, and we need to offer flexible mechanisms so that these amounts stop going up to become an unsolvable problem in the end. That is why a well-calculated, logical, and, perhaps, brave proposal should be made here,” the Head of Government said.
Karen Karapetyan’s next instruction was about the management in the construction sector. In particular, the Prime Minister instructed to elaborate a package of proposals aimed at clarifying the whole circuit of relations in construction and simplifying the procedures for issuing permits and conclusions, as well as clarifying the discretionary powers of competent authorities.
The Premier’s third instruction was about the introduction of the institution of pre-qualification in the field of road construction and reconstruction. For this purpose, the responsible agencies will jointly develop and submit relevant proposals for the introduction of the pre-qualification requirement in road construction and reconstruction, as well as, if needed, in other public procurement spheres.
The meeting approved the Government’s legislative initiatives on a number of bills. In particular, the package of draft laws on amendments to the Law on Large Families and related laws envisages additional incentives for childbirth and enlarged reproduction by clarifying the social status of large families and providing relevant welfare guarantees.
The amendments to the Law on Higher Education, the Law on General Education and other legislative acts are called for by the current trends of developing and globalizing higher education, as well as by the drive for integration with the European Higher Education Area.
By adopting a package of draft laws on Civil Service, Public Service and related laws, the civil service framework will be expanded, and the relevant authorities will be endowed with clear-cut statutory powers to manage human resources. In addition, the amendments are meant to decentralize the civil service system in Armenia.
The draft law On Temporary Ban on Import of Right-Hand Drive Vehicles suggests prohibiting the imports of motor vehicles with right-hand drive from April 1 to October 1, 2018.
To simplify the applicable procedure for issuing temporary professional activity permits in the Republic of Armenia, the Government made amendments and additions to one of its previous decisions. It will facilitate the exercise of short-term professional activity by foreign medical experts and, in general, will enhance the quality of medical care and services in Armenia’s healthcare system.
