YEREVAN. - The companies in Armenia have not only not decreased, but actually increased in number, Armenia’s Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan said in the parliament today in the follow-up to the debates on the Draft State Budget for 2016.
Statements that small business is massively shutting down are unjustified. According to the official statistics, as of November 1, the Finance Ministry has registered 67,830 turnover taxpayers, while in 2014 their number was 58,163. That is, the growth constituted 17%, the Minister said.
This was due to the fact that the government raised the turnover tax threshold twice a year ago (from 58,35 to 115 mln AMD a year, approx. $240,000).
“Of course, some of the companies are shutting down. But the reason here is neither the tax nor the legislation, but the competition and availability of financial means. And some of them don’t know how to effectively manage their expenses,” Khachatryan said.
