Tax Increases, Fees, Penalties, and Fines Expected: 'Pasts'

The newspaper 'Pasts' reports that the current authorities are expected to introduce a draft law next year that will tax the entire educational and healthcare sectors. In an interview with 'Pasts', the President of the Chamber of Auditors, Nairi Sargsyan, stated: 'This means a 20% increase in hospital services, university tuition, and fees for paid kindergartens and schools.'

Sargsyan emphasized that currently, the healthcare and education sectors in Armenia are exempt from value-added tax to ensure that services remain more affordable and accessible, as these are crucial sectors for our country, and specific tax incentives force them to develop.

Overall, according to the President of the Chamber of Auditors, if the economy is not operating at full capacity, and the production of goods is not increasing, with all export channels being blocked, this means that there are two options left for fulfilling the revenue part of the budget: raising tax rates or inflation.

'The prices of goods and services should increase, resulting in higher tax collection, or prices will rise by little or four percent—an acceptable level as stipulated in the 'Budget Law'. Our forecast indicates that both will occur. We started with the taxation of dividends, where we had a very strong debate with the professional community, and a consensual option was adopted, meaning that for some, the five percent rate will increase next year, while for others, it will not change. There are still draft laws that I believe will be presented for acceptance in a few days. These include the doubling of penalties and fines in cases of tax evasion. The tax on connecting advertising through the Facebook social network has been increased, which is collected directly from the population. Wildberries is also taxed, meaning that for any order, we collect 20 percent more from the people and pay it into the budget, etc.,' Sargsyan added, concluding that the budget for 2024 itself is difficult to implement.