YEREVAN. – Chorrord Ishkhanutyun daily has learned that Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan had summoned the large business representatives and urged them to explain to the people that the new law on turnover tax will not infringe on their rights and interests, the daily reported.   

“Abrahamyan guessed that numerous [large businesses] themselves are urging the small and medium-sized enterprise representatives to speak out in protest.    

“Subsequently, the PM ‘hinted’ that he knows who directs, and how, the people’s protest toward the government.   

“It is for this reason that the large businessmen made public actions as a sign of loyalty to the Prime Minister,” Chorrord Ishkhanutyun wrote.

Pursuant to the new Law on Turnover Tax, which has come into force in Armenia on October 1, the tax rate for businesses in the country has dropped from 3.5 percent to one percent, but now the businesses will have to submit documents on their commodity circulation. And if a business enterprise does not submit a respective document, it will be warned at first, and, subsequently, it will be fined.

The new law has caused a considerable protest among the country’s small and medium-sized merchants. In their view, asking for these documents from the large businesses is unrealistic because the large businesses often do not provide documents to the small and medium-sized enterprises concerning the products.

The government, on the other hand, justifies this new law with the need to prevent tax evasion by Armenia’s large businesses.

But the government recently postponed the new law’s execution until February 1.