ArmInfo. New head of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia Vardan Haroutiunyan chaired a working meeting at the Committee on October 17. He urged comfortable conditions for conscientious taxpayer businesses, especially the small and mid-sized enterprises. "The good taxpayers should not feel the presence of tax officers. Only purposeful inspections with substantiated risk criteria can be held at SMEs," Haroutiounyan said.
According to the State Revenue Committee press-office, the Committee head charged tax officers to treat taxpayers as creators of economic benefits for the state and the budget and establish partnership-based relations with conscientious taxpayers. He urged against accumulation of pre-payments not to create additional load on the state budget. The Committee head charged the tax officers to inform, explain and warn taxpayers against punitive measures and try to reveal the hidden capacities in the fields.
He said the Committee must fight the shadow economy on a daily-basis through exposing the shadow turnover in the country, preventing protectionism, and imposing equal terms for all businesspersons irrespective of their ties and positions.
In Jan-Aug 2016, the budget deficit of Armenia amounted to 131 bln AMD ($272 mln), growing 35.1% as compared to Jan-Aug 2015. According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the budget revenues dropped by 1% (versus 2% rise a year before) to 733.4 bln AMD. The budget expenditures rose by 3.2% (versus 16.2% growth a year before) to 864.4 bln AMD. The revenues from turnover tax grew by 32.5% to 9.8 bln AMD, profit tax - by 32.2% to 93.7 bln AMD, target social payments - by 23.5% to 8.3 bln AMD, excise tax - by 16.6% to 35.4 bln AMD, mandatory social security payments fell by 14.6% to 5.8bln drams. In the meantime, the revenues from income tax increased moderately by 6.4% to 211.9 bln AMD, fixed payments - by 2% to 2.1bln drams, and revenues from state duties increased by 1.2% to 20.6 bln AMD.