Samvel Avetikyan: In 2018 Armenia`s SRC will continue the policy of alleviating the financial burden of taxpayers

ArmInfo. The reforms in the  sphere of customs regulation, implemented by the State Revenue  Committee of Armenia (SRC) in 2017, had a positive impact on  business. This was announced on February 26 at the meeting with  journalists by the first deputy chairman of the RA KGD Samvel  Avetikyan.

According to him, according to the results of the work done, the SRC  of Armenia has already noted the positive dynamics in terms of tax  collection. In 2017, customs revenues of the state treasury totaled  AMD 318.3 billion, which is 60.2 billion ASMD or 23.4% higher than  the same indicator of 2016. As early as January 2018, the customs  body provided more than 18 billion AMD to the budget, which exceeds  last year's figure by more than 3 billion drams or by 20%. The growth  of tax revenues became possible in the conditions of non-payment of  VAT at the customs border when importing cars, equipment and raw  materials. According to him, since January 1 this year as a result of  the coming into force of the new legislative regulations, when  importing industrial production equipment and machinery for more than  13.2 billion AMD, VAT was not added in the amount of 2.6 billion  drams. Thus, according to Avetikyan, failure to pay VAT at the  border, as well as a number of other initiatives, will lead to a  decrease in the tax burden of taxpayers and parallel to the growth of  their working capital, which can be used to expand business.

In addition, as the representative of the tax and customs agency  recalled, since 2017 a fundamentally new approach to assessing  imported cars has been applied. For today, according to Avetikyan,  the process of customs clearance of the car requires an average of 20  minutes. The relevant information is already posted on the website of  the SRC, soon the customs value of the imported car can be calculated  thanks to the electronic customs calculator.

Among the initiatives of the SRC aimed at alleviating the burden of  taxpayers, Samvel Alexanian also called for the introduction of a  certification system, through which individuals will be exempted from  the need to pay for customs brokers to submit a declaration for a car  of their own use, since clearance is carried out by customs officials  without additional payment.

As for the plans for 2018, according to Samvel Avetikyan, it is  planned to switch to full electronic declaration, including through  the introduction of the "green way". In addition, it is planned to  introduce a preliminary declaration system.