Fines for Late Submission of Financial Reports to Increase Significantly

During the presentation of the draft amendments to the Administrative Violations Code of the Republic of Armenia in the permanent committee of the National Assembly, Deputy Minister of Finance Arman Poghosyan stated, "The draft proposes to raise the penalties for not publishing financial reports in the manner and within the deadlines established by law, so that their total amount is comparable to the average market price of auditing financial reports."

He noted that under the current regulations, the existing penalty amount is comparable to 10% of the average market price of auditing financial reports, mentioning that a fine of 50,000 drams is imposed for the violation, which increases to 500,000 drams if not corrected within 30 days, and the total amount can reach 550,000 drams.

According to the deputy minister, the average market price for auditing financial reports in Armenia is 6 million drams. "It is evident that the current penalties cannot have a behavioral impact on economic entities. The statistics from the past three years testify to this," said Poghosyan, highlighting that out of 550 organizations subject to audit, only 50% fulfill their obligations on time. He added, "It is proposed to revise the measures of responsibility for such violations: setting a fine of 150,000 drams for the first violation, and if not corrected within 30 days, increasing it to 1.5 million drams, and if still not corrected within an additional 30 days, to 3 million drams."