YEREVAN. – The Government of Armenia is torpedoing the law whereby gold casting in the country will become easier, Yerevan Jewelry Plant-1 company CEO Emil Grigoryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The draft amendments in the law propose to lift the VAT from the transactions related to gold and silver alloy, from which gold is cast. At present, the experts prefer to export this alloy, since this export is exempt from the VAT.

“We continue to fight with the Ministry of Finance so that the bill is accepted as soon as possible. The objective is to make gold processing become easier in Armenia.

“It may be advantageous for the West that everything remains as it is, since they want for the entire gold to flow to them. But we [, Armenia,] think that our natural resources [should] remain and be reprocessed here,” Grigoryan added.