YEREVAN. – The government's program is aimed at supporting the emergence of new businessmen. The Minister of Economy, Vahan Kerobyan, stated this in an interview with the Public Television of Armenia.

"The Ministry of Finance is trying to maximize taxes, but with that it harms, hinders the work of new businessmen, complicates their lives. To be honest, we know a way to solve the problem from the opposite side, making life easier for businessmen, to get more revenues in the [state] budget," Kerobyan added.

According to the economy minister, liberalization is a more effective tool to reduce the tax gap than the austerity measures, as the austerity measures push businessmen into the shadow [economy] arena. Most of today's shadow arena has arisen because businessmen operate in an impossible legislative arena. (…). The law needs to be changed so that people pay taxes; the taxes that are logical in today's reality," he said.