ArmInfo. The process of introducing the institution of real owners begins in Armenia. On October 29, RA Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan announced this on the sidelines of the "Transparency of Owners" forum that opened in Yerevan.
According to him, the current system of disclosing real owners is extremely inefficient. In particular, when registering with the director of a company in the state register, the submission of additional information about real owners was practically not required, and mechanisms for their disclosure were not used. After the "velvet" revolution, 1-2 cases of their disclosure were revealed. Moreover, as the minister noted, the concept of "identification" can include both the use of open sources and the data obtained as a result of operational criminal prosecution. However, when applying the new institution, not only criminal, but also administrative matters will be important, as well as the fulfillment of obligations under international tax agreements. Rustam Badasyan also emphasized that each investor in the implementation of joint projects wants to deal with a specific owner of the enterprise. Moreover, the work to identify the real owners will have to go through several industry structures - the tax service, financial institutions that need to know their clients by sight, the state register, international partners, the media and others. The question, according to the minister, is that the information should be accessible both to the general public and to certain state and legal structures. All these issues will be further explored in work with international partners. Armenia, as Rustam Badasyan noted, lags behind international trends in identifying real owners.
He also noted that the first step in this direction has already been taken. We are talking about enterprises in the mining industry, however, even here it is necessary to improve the mechanisms for applying the process of declaring property and income. The country's legislation, as the minister noted, provides for the disclosure of personal data in the presence of 10% of shares in a company. This measure applies to related parties. However, according to Rustam Badasyan, the volume of shares in this issue is not so fundamental, the mechanisms of disclosing information sources are much more important.
Recall that the Armenian parliament at the meeting on October 23 in the first reading amended the Subsoil Code and the package of related laws, which, among other regulations, are provided until January 30 2020 to publish the names of all ultimate beneficiaries (shareholders, members of the Board of Directors and management structures) of companies involved in the development of deposits. Publication will be subject to data on the owners, whether it be one person or a group of related persons.
Recall that the publication of real owners of companies is an obligation of Armenia to the international coalition "Initiative of transparency in the extractive industry", which the republic has become a member of since March 2017. The main goal of the legislative initiative is to ensure transparency in the field of natural resources management. The first step has already been taken in this direction - from January 1 of this year. The archive fund, which provides all the information about the bowels of Armenia, has become available to all interested parties. It should be noted that on the state balance of mineral reserves at present more than 670 deposits of solid minerals with confirmed reserves, including 30 metal, are registered. About 400 of these deposits are exploited, including 23 metal ones. There are 7 copper-molybdenum deposits, 4 copper, 14 gold and gold-polymetallic deposits, 2 iron ore and 1 aluminum ore in metallic minerals.