YEREVAN. – According to initial calculations, Sanitek company—which carries out waste management in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan—owes 500mn drams to the state. Deputy chairman of the State Revenue Committee, Edvard Hovhannisyan, noted about this at a press conference on Tuesday.

According to him, however, we need to wait for the final results of the investigation, and only then consider the means to recover this damage.

Hovhannisyan stressed that Sanitek has presented its waste removal as cargo transportation, whereas sanitary cleaning of areas, or snow removal, is taxed in Armenia with the value added tax.

“But we believe that the transportation of garbage should be considered part of garbage disposal,” he said. “In addition, the activities of the garbage transportation company don’t meet cargo transportation standards.”

The official added that even though Sanitek has accrued debts in terms of environmental tax payments, too, we need to wait until the criminal case is over, and then sum up the results.

As a result of the conflict between the new Armenian authorities and foreign company Sanitek, Yerevan has been “buried” in garbage for months.