YEREVAN. – Over twenty merchants representing several bazaars and kiosks in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, and who are protesting the new Law on Turnover Tax, on Monday will meet with Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan, to present the difficulties connected with the documentation which the new law stipulates.

Khachatryan received the instruction to meet with the merchants from Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, who informed about this to the merchants at his talk with them at the Government.

“After the meeting with the minister of finance, we will meet with the PM again, to get a solution to the problem.

“Judging by the PM’s disposition, I think everything will be fine,” Stepan Aslanyan, Chairman of the Armenian Union of Small Entrepreneurs, told those who has assembled outside the Government Building.

He also noted that on Wednesday, the merchants will present their case at the National Assembly.

Samson Grigoryan, a merchant who participated in the meeting with the Premier, informed those who had gathered that the PM had promised to do everything to resolve this matter.

“The law will be in force for now, but the Prime Minister promised us that no inspections will be conducted for the time being,” Grigoryan added.

Those who had assembled outside the Government Building left, but promising to gather once again if no positive results are achieved from the meeting with the finance minister.

Pursuant to the new Law on Turnover Tax, which has come into force in Armenia on October 1, 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.