The sphere of inbound tourism to be exempted from VAT in the next 3 years in Armenia,

ArmInfo. In Armenia, the sphere of inbound tourism will be exempted from the payment of value-added tax (VAT). The Deputy Finance Minister of Armenia David Ananyan announced on December 8 at a press conference on forthcoming changes in the tax legislation.

The Deputy Minister reminded that according to the current law "On VAT", zero-rate VAT applies to tour operators providing tourist services in Armenia.  Meanwhile, when developing the Tax Code, which was adopted in September 2016, the government decided to abolish the benefits, as it aimed to reduce tax preferences and expand the tax base. Nevertheless, after discussions in the government, as well as meetings with representatives of the tourist sector and public organizations, it was decided to restore the tax privilege in the field of inbound tourism with an intend to return to this topic after 3 years. "The tour operator, thus, is given the opportunity to conduct business for 3 more years in preferential treatment, and the government will monitor the results in order to understand whether to retain the privilege or to refuse it," Ananyan concluded.

The services sector increased volumes in Jan-Oct 2017 to the same period of 2016 by 13.9% - to 1.2 trillion AMD ($ 2.4 billion), against the 7.7% growth a year earlier. Only in October there was also registered an increase of 2.4% to 140.6 billion ($ 292.5 million). The financial services sector is leading by volume of rendered services - 248.6 billion (21% of the total volume), with the lion's share being banks. The second place in the volume of services is occupied by the sphere of culture, entertainment and recreation - 234.4 billion (19.8% of the total volume). The third place is occupied by the sphere of information and communication - 189 billion (16%), with the main load coming from the telecommunications segment. The fourth place is occupied by the sphere of transport - 159.4 billion (13.5%). The top five in terms of the volume of services provided is the sphere of catering and tourism - 91.8 billion (7.8%).