Armenian Prime Minister and major taxpayers discuss problems hindering business development 

ArmInfo. On December 14, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan met with the chief executive officers of 10 major taxpayers of Armenia to discuss their concerns about the existing bottlenecks and the steps expected from the Government toward providing favorable conditions for further development.

The press office of the Armenian Government reports that talking about their problems, the taxpayers voiced concerns over the size of overpayments, the need to simplify the tax and customs procedures, reduce the time needed for customs clearance. They made a point of economic competition and other issues of topical interest.

With reference to overpayments, the Prime Minister said that next year they should work jointly with the State Revenue Committee with a view to making out an accurate schedule.

"We obviously have to solve this problem. We are planning a fairly aggressive growth in proper revenue next year. You may realize the projected rate of growth considering that we are also going to reduce the size of overpayments, mathematically speaking. I mean that base revenue should grow more rapidly," the Premier stated.

When the representatives of major diesel fuel importers complained that they had been working at zero profit rates as a result of intensified market competition, Prime Minister Karapetyan replied that the market would regulate itself over time. 

The largest public service providers stressed the need to improve infrastructure and the regulatory framework. The meeting also discussed large taxpayers' development prospects, ways of stepping up their output, promoting economic development and other issues of mutual interest.

The Head of Government suggested building a joint platform with the departments concerned in order to take up the matters in more detail, as well as to keep in touch with each other and uphold the dialogue between the Government and the private sector.

To remind, according to the draft budget of 2017, the tax revenues will total 1.135 trillion AMD, or 21% of GDP, 0.3% more than in 2016 (1.129 trillion AMD in 2016 and 1.065 trillion AMD in 2015). Revenues of the Armenian budget 2017 will amount to 1.210 trillion AMD (nearly  $2.55 bln). The tax revenues will make up 93.8% of total budget revenues: revenues from income tax are estimated at 347.2 bln AMD, from profit tax - 134.2 bln AMD, excise tax - 63.6 bln AMD, customs duties - 53.6 bln AMD, environmental payments - 32.7 bln AMD, licensed payments from the turnover tax - 24.3 bln AMD, fixed payments - 3.3 bln AMD. Revenues from the target social payments are estimated at 14.3 bln AMD.

According to the National Statistics Service of Armenia, in Jan-Oct 2016 the share of taxes and duties in the budget revenues grew to 94.4% from 93.6% in Jan-Oct 2015. In absolute terms, it dropped by 0.2% to 878.8 bln AMD. In particular, the revenues from customs duties fell by 12.7%, from added tax dropped by 10.7%, while the revenues from the turnover tax grew by 28.6%, profit tax - by 23.8%, excise tax - by 18.2%. The revenues from the income tax grew by 4.6%, fixed payments - by 1.6%, and revenues from the state duties - by 1.5%.