YEREVAN, July 20. /ARKA/. The business community of Armenia is dissatisfied with a package of proposals, designed by the State Revenue Committee (SRC) to amend the Law on Banking Secrecy and other related laws.
The package was withdrawn earlier this month from the single website e-draft.am, created for publishing daft legal acts, for elaboration, according to SRC. Now it will be again placed for public discussions.
Under the proposed amendments, tax authorities will have direct and full access to information on the bank accounts of individuals and legal entities.
“We find that this package of proposals poses a serious threat to economic entities because it would be a big step backwards if implemented,” said LSA founder and director Arsen Sardaryan at a press conference.
He pointed out a proposal that says if a company’s expenses are larger than its income, the exceeding portion will be counted as undeclared income and taxed.
“If an entrepreneur misspells the investment, it would be regarded as income and taxed,” the entrepreneur said.
According to Sardaryan, entrepreneurs would be deprived of one of the fundamental constitutional guaranties and as a result, foreign investors will not seek entry to the Armenian market either.
Beer Academy Restaurants founder Armen Ghazaryan stated that in 2020 the SRC had already proposed to adopt a similar draft law. At the time, however, the president sent the draft law to the Constitutional Court, which ruled it unconstitutional.
Many entrepreneurs fear that if adopted the changes would lead to capital flight from the Armenian banking system.-0-
