Armenian PM says next year to see breakthrough in development of e-payments

YEREVAN, October 26. / ARKA /. Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said today next year will see a breakthrough in the development of electronic payments because of a dramatic rise in the number of people that will start using electronic payment systems. Speaking at an international gathering in Yerevan convened to look into new trends in remittances in former Soviet republics the prime minister said the government is set to enforce a string of reforms designed to give a boost to electronic payments systems. “The first thing we have done was to introduce electronic reporting to tax authorities, which implies that employers must have electronic signatures,’ he said. According to the Armenian premier, this will result in a dramatic rise in the number of Internet users to make electronic payments. This, he said, will also raise the level of literacy of citizens, which in turn is a good basis for the development of electronic banking. The prime minister emphasized that electronic payment systems are facing new challenges brought about by science and technology progress, increasing availability of electronic payments, emergence of electronic wallets, e-banking. This is why, he said, they need to follow the development of technology and introduce new services. “On the other hand, developing technologies increase the risk of fraud in this area, and this means that regulators need to be very careful to prevent threats while respecting the balance to avoid slowdown of progress”, Sargsyan said. According to a revised Armenian law on income tax, from 2013 January entrepreneurs will be required to submit registration applications only electronically as well as report only electronically. Electronic signatures are contained in ID cards, which also include an electronic database of a person, special cryptographic keys and identification certificate. The validity of an ID card is 10 years. The cost of obtaining an ID card, as well as annual maintenance of electronic signature is 3000 drams. The conference in Yerevan is organized by Unistream money transfer system with the support of the Central Bank of Armenia, the ARB and IAMTN (International Association of Remittances). The gathering has brought to Yerevan representatives of the central banks of different countries, international organizations, banking associations, payment systems, managers of banks in Russia, the CIS, Georgia, Baltic countries, as well as companies providing technology solutions for the banking business. The main objective of the conference is to discuss the prospects for further development of technology and the money transfer market. ($ 1 – 405.25 drams). -0-