Another Dangerous Initiative: Entrepreneurs to Lose Benefits

The newspaper 'Fact' reports that in October, the government approved a draft law that, if adopted, will deprive entrepreneurs operating under the microbusiness tax system of the benefits currently available to them. The 'Chamber of Auditors' submitted an appeal to the Ministry of Finance and the Permanent Committee on Economic Issues of the National Assembly about a month ago, hoping to prevent the adoption of this law.

In an interview with 'Fact', the President of the Chamber of Auditors, Nayri Sargsyan, stated that this is yet another harmful and dangerous initiative that could effectively 'cut down' the microbusiness sector. 'Organizations with a turnover of up to 24 million drams in the microbusiness tax system—service providers, traders, manufacturers—are entitled to operate under this system and not pay taxes. This initiative essentially means that organizations engaged in wholesale activities will not be allowed to remain within the microbusiness tax system,' Sargsyan said.

She provided an example, pointing to the production of vodka, wine, and various similar products in bordering rural areas, which are already uncompetitive due to road access issues affecting pricing policies.

'If this draft law is adopted, and someone offers prices from a supermarket in Yerevan while stating that we sell to you on paper, but that paper is not subject to cost accounting, they definitely will not purchase goods from us. The outcome will be that nobody will be able to engage in such production anymore. They want to adopt a law that will effectively 'cut down' the micro business sector, leading to the closure of existing producers and preventing new ones from starting. This means that production created in Armenia is being banned, pushing people to prefer importing the same products from Turkey. I believe that fertile ground is being prepared for imports from Turkey,' Sargsyan stated.

She noted that there has been no response from the aforementioned ministry and committee yet. For more details, see today's issue of the newspaper.