On September 3, the RA Government approved draft amendments to the RA Law “On local taxes” granting communities the right to levy a special tax from gas-filling stations located in the communities. The annual tax rate is 150-200 thousand AMD.

The draft amendments will, as an initiative, be submitted to Parliament, with the well-known businessman Gagik Tsarukyan being head of the influential “gas lobby” there. The parliamentarians may “give another battle” to kill or, at least, block the bill though 200,000 AMD annually is no money for gas-filling stations.

Experts estimate the annual net profit of one gas-filling station with four fuel dispensers at about U.S. $50,000. It is noteworthy the bill was quite promptly submitted to the Government for approval and has not been addressed since the Government’s sitting. Obviously, the Government is not interested in public discussions of the bill. A defect of the bill is that it does not say anything about the number of pipes supplying gas to fuellers. Stations with one to three fuel dispensers are operating in most Armenian regions, while ones with 4-7 dispensers in Yerevan. The later group’s profits are much higher.