YEREVAN. – Opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) Board member Zoya Tadevosyan is convinced that the requirement of product documentation, which is stipulated in the new amendments and additions to the Law on Turnover Tax, creates additional difficulties in the development of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

“What is more, the SMEs are unable to get these documents from the large supplier, since they [, the large suppliers,] will prefer giving the products to supermarkets, and not to the small enterprises,” Tadevosyan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

In her words, the Armenian state needs to provide favorable conditions for the country’s SMEs.

As reported earlier, pursuant to the new amendments and additions to the Law on Turnover Tax, which have come into force in Armenia on October 1, 2014, 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.

But these amendments and additions have 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 these amendments and additions with the need to prevent tax evasion by Armenia’s large businesses.

As a result of protests as well as talks with Armenia’s public sector, however, the government had decided to extend the aforementioned deadline for four months, until February 1. And during the special Cabinet meeting on January 31, it was decided to postpone for five more months, until July 1, the aforesaid law’s controversial requirement of product documentation.