On 10 October the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) office in Armenia organized a live-stream discussion on the law on Circulation tax.
During the discussions the SME union president Stepan Aslanyan stated that the law is not directed at the development of small and medium enterprises. “On the contrary, this is directed at concealing the shadow economy, as they do not present documents. They won`t give documents to the SME”, said Mr Aslanyan, adding that the society had not been informed on the law. “Any law developed in the National Assembly, people are not aware of. They learn about it only when the tax assessor grossly enters into their enterprise, and this was something that brought the merchants to the protests”.
“Concern-Dialogue” Law firm president, advocate Sedrak Asatryan stated that in the struggle against the shadow this law is not a real factor. “It solves just a small issue. If we want to fight against the shadow, we should implement full usage of CCMs. Acquisition documents do not solve anything. The circulation of the small enterprise is defined by the CCM, and it shows whether the company conceals anything or not”.
