YEREVAN. – The small businesses in Armenia need an even greater freedom than the one that already exists. Economist Tatul Manaseryan said the aforementioned at a press conference on Friday, and commenting on the country’s small and medium-sized business owners’ recent demonstrations against the new Law on Turnover Tax.

“I support that the tax rate drops from 3.5 percent to one percent [as the new law stipulates], and I [also] support the proposal to increase the annual threshold of the turnover tax. The culture of officially registering business deal must be uprooted,” Manaseryan added.

As per the economist, the very same European Union treats business very strictly.

“France or Germany would not have been as tolerant toward the business deal official registration procedures that used to function, and partially function now, too, [here] at us.

“The matter of documentation of business deals rises sooner or later in any economic space,” Tatul Manaseryan concluded.

Pursuant to the new Law on Turnover Tax, which has come into force in Armenia on Wednesday, 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.