YEREVAN. – Economic policy and tax policy contradict each other in Armenia, economist Ashot Khurshudyan said at a press conference on Tuesday.

In his words, promoting of imports or trade is not the important thing to the country.

“The state also thinks about them because most of the taxes generate from imports and trade,” stressed Khurshudyan. “That is, what isn’t beneficial for the economy is beneficial for the budget, and the tax, customs authorities [of Armenia] are automatically adapting.

“If the government wishes to eliminate all this, it needs to completely eliminate the concept of a ‘plan;’ this is a very huge risk.

“[But] since they [i.e. the Armenian government] are unable to fight against corruption, they decided to legalize it; that is, to put the people’s fines in a fund, and thus give a bonus payment.”