Pashinyan Wants to Initially Count Money Received from Abroad, Says Arpine Hovhannisyan

Former Vice President of the National Assembly Arpine Hovhannisyan wrote on her Facebook page: “Pashinyan wants to initially count the money received from people abroad, and then… Yesterday, the Prime Minister for the people stated in the National Assembly, among other highly 'state-oriented' and 'balanced' declarations, that a universal declaration institute should be established, which means that every citizen of the Republic of Armenia must report their income to the state.

Do you remember before the December 2018 elections? I was the first to discuss the introduction of a universal declaration based on the statements of the Chairman of the State Revenue Committee, Davit Ananyan, and its dangers. During the peak of the electoral campaign, the government spokespersons rushed to deny such news with extreme force and in the most shameless manner, and then manipulated their intentions, claiming that the declaration had nothing to do with taxation. The topic was forgotten, and yesterday, two years later, the people's Prime Minister, together with his team, reaffirms that their government records record new rates of lying and manipulation every day.

Remembering the universal declaration at this difficult phase is not accidental, as the implementation of this institute will have far-reaching consequences. Universal declaration means reporting all incomes, including transfers sent to proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia by their proud compatriots, meaning the government will check how much income its citizens receive from abroad, one by one.

Based on this, the government will first deprive citizens receiving such transfers from different social support programs. The people's Prime Minister loves to count every entry to the account of his citizens and will not miss any opportunity, even for minimal cash flow, to deprive citizens of support, with the simple logic that if there is a compatriot helping from abroad, then why should the Prime Minister and his team care about the welfare of their citizen?

In fact, the Prime Minister even did not hesitate to show his intention yesterday when he confirmed that there is no banking secrecy in this country that is not accessible to him, by disclosing information about the number and amount of citizens with bank deposits. He is counting the money of ordinary citizens to deprive them of benefits and assistance. No one tells him that this information is a SECRET.

Ultimately, universal declaration will also lead to the taxation of even minimal cash inflows. Do not try to convince that the state will put in enormous effort and energy for universal declaration without any tangible monetary expectations. Generally speaking, the state taxes the income in whose formation it has its contribution; it is morally at a minimum to tax the earnings of even your compatriot in another country. It turns out that both the receiver should be taxed here and the sender there. This is the way of thinking of Nikol.

P.S. Thanks to Nikol Pashinyan, in the Republic of Armenia, no legally protected information is preserved, starting from banking secrecy to personal data. Moreover, Nikol Pashinyan has an unhealthy perception that every financially successful individual is in some way a lawbreaker, and therefore, as Prime Minister, he considers that he has the indelible moral right to rummage through such people's financial documents.”