Publication of Purchase Contracts for Cash Registers Could Have Severe Consequences, Says Tax Authority to Hetq

The publication of purchase contracts for cash registers could have serious consequences for Armenia's security. With this reasoning, the State Revenue Committee has once again denied Hetq’s request for the procurement contracts of cash registers.

“We requested these contracts from the SRC after we found out that the cash register machines delivered to businesses recently were sold at around 70% above their cost price.

New cash registers have been sold at nearly 70% above their cost price, while the SRC keeps the contracts confidential.

Specifically, we contacted the Chinese company 'Paks Technology' that supplied these devices and discovered that the cost of one machine is about 90,000 AMD, while the SRC has reported it as 160,000 AMD.

It should be noted that the current price for businesses has dropped from 160,000 AMD to 60,000 AMD, and the government has announced that it will subsidize the remaining 100,000 AMD. However, the facts published in our article suggested that businesses may not actually need to pay 60,000 AMD now due to the potential significant profits previously accumulated by the 'Cash Register Implementation Office' under the SRC.

After the publication of the article, Hetq sent a letter to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, asking him to obligate the SRC to provide the cash register procurement contracts. It is important to note that only the procurement contracts will officially confirm how much profit the 'Cash Register Implementation Office' has gained from the sale of these machines so far.

The government forwarded our inquiry to the State Revenue Committee, whose legal department again did not provide the procurement contracts, referencing the Armenian law on 'State and Official Secrets.'

In fact, even the government, represented by Nikol Pashinyan, could not ensure the transparency of public procurement, and businesses are deprived of the opportunity to know the actual value of the cash registers that have been mandatory sold to them over the years,” the media outlet reported, presenting the SRC's response in full.