Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan chaired today a consultation over the tax and customs privileges granted for investment projects in overriding sectors and agricultural projects with the heads of interested departments and representatives of the Staff of the Prime Minister.
Prior to the discussion, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan touched upon his working visits to Luxembourg, Brussels and China and stated that, overall, he views them as successful and will soon hold consultations to consider issues related to specific agreements in specific directions.
Afterwards, the participants of the consultation discussed the issues included in the agenda of the consultation.
Minister of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan reported on the equipment imported within the scope of an investment project and the course of implementation of investment projects that are exempt from paying a customs duty for importing raw materials and received deferment for a period of up to 3 years for payment of value added tax, stating that exemption from the customs duty for import is in effect upon Decision N 1118-N of 17 September 2015.
To this day, such privileges have been granted to 106 companies, the total amount of investments of which makes up nearly USD 1.1 billion, of which the actual amount of investments comprises USD 554 million. Out of the 9,230 jobs, 5,351 jobs have been created to date.
The privilege for exemption from the value added tax has been in effect since 2009, and the privilege has been granted for 121 investment projects.
Based on the annual reports of 2018 provided for by a procedure, the amount of actual investments comprised AMD 651 billion, and there were 9,175 jobs.
There was an exchange of ideas about the specified issues. The potential changes in the procedures for exempting from customs duty and granting privileges for deferment of VAT payment that will be aimed at raising the level of transparency of companies and addressability of privileges.
Summing up the discussion, the Prime Minister attached importance to the transition from the government’s decisions on the specific privileges to total regulation and assigned those responsible to submit, within a two-month period, a package of modified regulating documents. During a report on the course of implementation of agricultural projects, the results of subsidization of interest rates for loans granted to farmers, leasing of agricultural machinery, introduction of modern irrigation systems, establishment of intensive gardens, installation of anti-hail networks, construction of “smart” cattle farms and local seed-farming were touched upon.
Attaching importance to proper implementation of the projects for the development of villages and agriculture, the Prime Minister said there was also a need for advisory actions and awareness-raising activities for farmers and rural economies. “Government officials, ministries and deputy ministers need to play the role of ideologists. This is the most important thing. We need to change the perception. If we don’t, nothing will change,” Nikol Pashinyan stated.
The head of government also touched upon the export of agricultural products, attached importance to the ensuring of the cycle and gave assignments to the heads of the relevant departments.