Armenian Parliament passes bill on Turnover Tax
Armenia’s National Assembly today voted 92 to 6 to pass the bill on Turnover Tax. There were 13 abstentions. Mikael Melkumyan, a lawmaker from the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) faction, said his colleagues had met with representatives of small and medium-sized businesses and their proposals had partly been accepted, hence the BHK would vote for the bill. Levon Zurabyan, Head of the Armenian National Congress (HAK) faction, said the government had submitted a flexible bill which was, on the whole, acceptable to the majority, but there was one shortcoming. “The bill suggests increasing the rate by 5%. We cannot vote for a bill which implies a 5-percent tax increase for SMEs,” he said. Secretary of the BHK faction Naira Zohrabyan said she wanted to explain the position of her party. “Yestreday we met with representatives of SMEs and they urged us to vote for the bill as they were satisfied with the amendments.” There were many other opinions for and against the amendments which did not prevent the parliamentary majority from adopting the bill.
