Starting July 1, payments for a number of transactions must be made exclusively in cashless form, says Tumanyants

In Armenia, starting July 1, payments for a number of transactions must be conducted exclusively in a cashless manner. If these transactions are made in cash, they may be declared void and invalid. The Deputy Minister of Justice, Yeranuhy Tumanyants, presented the draft amendments to the law on cashless transactions during a parliamentary session.

The law on cashless transactions was adopted in January 2022, stipulating that after July 1, 2022, payments for various transactions must be made in cashless form. This applies, for example, to transactions involving the sale of property, the execution of works, and the provision of services where the price exceeds 300,000 drams or, for example, 500,000 drams.

“To implement these regulations, it is necessary to ensure that such transactions are conducted in a cashless manner. For this purpose, the bill proposes that if the requirements of the specified law are not met, it will lead to the nullification of the transaction. This means that the transaction will be deemed invalid from the outset, considered not concluded, and will not result in the legal consequences that the parties intended to achieve when concluding the transaction,” said the Deputy Minister.

In this case, any interested person may apply to the court within 10 years to demand the application of the consequences of the transaction’s nullification. This means that if the court finds that the transaction is void, each party must return what they received from the transaction or, if that is impossible, compensate for the value of what was received in cash.

“This regulation will also apply in cases where the transaction is divided and paid in installments to avoid the requirements of the law. In such cases, the transaction will also be considered void,” highlighted Tumanyants.

Additionally, the draft clarifies that economic operators must, at the request of the customer, necessarily accept cashless payments through payment cards, except for small kiosks. As for the acceptance of cashless payments through other payment instruments based on payment technologies, such as electronic wallets, economic operators can accept payments at their discretion.

Sergey Bagratyan from the ruling party faction conveyed citizens' concerns and complaints, noting that in rural areas there are no devices available for pensioners to pay by card and receive the allowable refund amount. The Deputy Minister stated that the draft and the overall law partly address this issue if the transaction amount is above 300,000 drams. If such a transaction occurs, having a POS terminal is a mandatory requirement; otherwise, the tax authorities will fine the operator.