5.6 Billion AMD Paid Instead of Announced 4.2 Billion AMD for Tsarukyan's Casino

The state budget has paid 5.6 billion AMD, instead of the previously announced 4.2 billion AMD, for the casino "Shangri La" owned by Gagik Tsarukyan, leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK). This information was provided to Hetq by the Ministry of Finance and supporting documents.

According to the government decision No. 1052-N dated July 7, 2022, a state fee of 5,570,812,500 AMD (five billion five hundred seventy million eight hundred twelve thousand five hundred) was paid by the company "Onira Club" for the third and fourth quarters of 2020, and the third quarter of 2022, along with penalty fees for delayed payments.

In 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the casino did not operate. However, the State Revenue Committee demanded that "Onira Club" continue to pay the state fee since the casino license remained valid. The casino operator "Onira Club" refused to pay, resulting in legal disputes with the SRC and the Ministry of Finance.

Everything was resolved when the government decided to settle the debts of "Onira Club" at the expense of taxpayers. It was stated in both the proposed bill and discussions during the executive's meeting on July 7 that 4.2 billion AMD would be allocated from the 2022 state budget to cover the state fee for the "Shangri La" casino license. However, it appears that government calculations changed, and the figure rose to 5.6 billion AMD, which included penalties for delayed payments.

During the meeting on July 7, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the government had reached an agreement with "Onira Club" for the casino to operate starting October 1, 2022, and that it would pay the state fee for the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the company filed a request with the Ministry of Finance to suspend the casino license until October 1, 2022. This creates a situation where the state pays the fee for the third quarter while the company also requests to suspend the license in the same quarter. According to the law, the quarterly fee is paid a few days before the onset of the specified quarter, which resulted in the company’s third quarter fee being cleared by the government.

The government decision states that based on the request of the company, the activity of the casino license granted by the finance minister's order dated July 12, 2022, was suspended until October 1, 2022. It is worth noting that due to the location of the "Shangri La" casino, the annual state fee for the license is set at 5.5 billion AMD.