Pharshinyan: I See Several Workers Gathered Around the Cash Register Unable to Print Receipts

The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, wrote on his Facebook page:

On Sunday, I went to Artsakh with my family to see Ashoti. We spent about four hours together at a roadside restaurant. After paying the bill, I noticed that they had not brought the cash register receipt. I called the waiter and asked, 'Aren't you supposed to give us a receipt?' He replied that they should indeed provide one. I said, 'Well, please give it to me.' After waiting for a while and seeing that they weren’t bringing the receipt, I approached the cash register myself. I saw that several workers had gathered around it and were unable to print a receipt (such situations happen when the staff do not have experience dealing with the device).

In the meantime, I learned that a group of citizens had come to discuss some issues with me. I stepped out of the restaurant and chatted with the citizens for about twenty minutes. After our conversation ended, I asked, 'Did they bring the cash register receipt?' No one was aware. I went back inside and asked, 'What happened to the cash register receipt?' They began to explain something about having just changed the cash register and so forth, but they still didn't provide the receipt.

I told the staff, 'But don’t you watch television? Don’t you see that we talk about the cash register receipt all day? We say that those who do not issue a cash register receipt are stealing from the soldier.' Now you are specifically interested in this, and I will report this incident to the tax authorities of Artsakh to take action. I have done so, and I believe that all those who do not issue cash register receipts should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

By the way, even though public catering establishments in the Republic of Artsakh pay established taxes, issuing a cash register receipt is mandatory for every transaction, because there is a tax reassessment after a certain turnover threshold is reached. And this turnover threshold is controlled by cash register receipts.

Now, after this incident, the restaurant owner has raised a fuss about the Prime Minister sending taxes to me. I want to officially state that I will act the same way in all similar cases, and I call upon all citizens of Armenia and Artsakh to do the same.

P.S. When they brought the bill, they said that their soldiers received a ten percent discount and that this discount was also applied to our soldier Ashoti. Here’s a patriotic gesture like that. But my dear ones, you shouldn’t do favors at the expense of the soldier. Solve the issue of their tax payments according to the law, and only then do favors. Those who do not issue cash register receipts are stealing from the soldier. And such behavior should deserve national contempt.

P.S. - 2 Because many publications will start appearing about the 'elite' tables and 'luxurious' dishes opened at that restaurant that day, I will immediately say that our bill amounted to 39,000 drams. Let those fond of such matters see what they can fit into this unprecedented sum. I should also mention that Ashoti left the military zone for a few hours on Sunday in accordance with established legal norms, like all our other soldiers. I personally checked the documents :)