Today there are large mansions that pay 800,000 drams annually, but after the law change, they will have to pay 15 million drams, says Prime Minister

There are two attitudes towards the state budget. When the state system considers it its own, while the public sees every penny paid to the budget as lost money. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this today, May 27, during a government meeting discussing the issue of increasing property tax.

“This is our gross national pocket, and we should treat the state budget as we treat our family budget. Yes, property tax will increase, but primarily it will be on those properties that we conditionally call mansions and villas. If we look at what property tax those large mansions are paying today, it is essentially symbolic. There is also a component of luxury tax here,” said Pashinyan.

According to him, people are building houses without considering any related factors; the bigger, taller, and more dominating over others, the better. “If that’s the case, then those who have such properties should pay,” he added.

He mentioned that in the first year, property tax for approximately 500,000 beneficiaries will decrease, and from the following year it will begin to gradually increase. “This means that 2021 will be in a crisis logic, and later increases will be proportionate to the situation. We have taken arbitrary addresses and compared today’s property tax application with future property tax. We were getting cases purely by formula where property tax increases 300-400 times. We decided to localize and clarified, for example, that these are the cases where, say, today one dram is paid, but after the law change, it will have to pay 300 drams. Or in cases where the tax rises 200 percent, like where someone pays 500 drams now, but will have to pay 1000 drams.

Of course, there are cases where the tax increases 2-3 times, but we consider that justifiable because today there are large mansions that pay 800,000 drams annually, but after the law change, they will have to pay 15 million drams. For those property owners, that 15 million drams is nothing, essentially. If a person has built such a mansion, it should be that way,” said the Prime Minister.