Have You Turned Your Brain Off, Gentlemen? Businessman Raises Alarm

Businessman Samson Grigoryan wrote on his Facebook page: "The State Revenue Committee (SRC) is the organization that relays information about the imports, acquisitions, and other activities of entrepreneurs to the oligarchs. As a result of such actions, many entrepreneurs have irreversibly lost their businesses. No one has, in fact, been held accountable for this. This confirms that such practices are not excluded to this day. And you are providing the SRC with banking secrets without a court decision? Have you straight-up turned your brain off, gentlemen?"

It should be noted that the SRC wants to have access to information considered as banking secrets without a court decision. A draft document posted on E-draft.am proposes amendments to the laws on “Banking Secrets” and “Insurance and Insurance Activities.”

The justification for the draft states that during tax audits conducted by the tax authority, often businesses or individuals refuse to provide information regarding bank account activities, loan and deposit agreements, collateral items, and guarantors, which sometimes makes it impossible to achieve the objectives of audit activities. The SRC believes that information containing banking secrets can be provided to tax bodies, considering that the tax authority is also a state agency managing secrets.

According to the justification, the tax authority maintains information that constitutes banking secrets in accordance with the procedures established by the RA legislation, as well as the fact that such information is used by the tax authority within the limits and frameworks of tax audits, as well as in line with its tasks and objectives.