ArmInfo. Scandalously known Norfolk Consulting company, which previously dealt with cargo transportation and customs clearance of documents and was associated with the name of former Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan, will cease its operation from tomorrow, Chairman of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia David Ananyan told journalists on August 23.
According to him, there will be no new company to replace Norfolk Consulting. "Norfolk will not have a successor, people will carry out customs clearance of their cargoes themselves," Ananyan said.
Earlier, on July 26, David Anan«an stated that doubts whether a new similar structure should be established or no are caused by the desire of the tax authorities to comply with the requirements of the current legislation. "It is necessary to find a happy medium, which, to some extent, may have contradictions with the law," he said, stressing that the state should decide whether it takes certain obligations to ease the concerns of business. "In my opinion: There should not be a successor to Norfolk." The price of the matter is a business operating in the field of the turnover tax, mostly an individual entrepreneur, who is facing a foggy future, "he said. At the same time, according to David Ananyan, business will have to learn all customs clearance operations. Taking into account the fact that not all economic entities may have relevant knowledge and skills in the field of customs, they will be given a certain time. Taking into account this fact, as Ananyan noted, the checks in Norfolk company were suspended so that it could temporarily advise the business. Regarding the restoration of the damage caused by the company to the state, according to David Ananyan, at that time the company paid about $ 2 million out of a total of $ 7 million. The rest $ 5 million the company had to repay until July 20, but with the extension of the inspection period , deadline was revised, and the new deadline is not known.
To note by establishing Norfolk Consulting, an attempt was made to distinguish these actions in order to facilitate customs procedures at the border for business entities. Nevertheless, on May 25, the National Security Service of Armenia stated that, as part of its activities aimed at combating corruption and economic crimes, it disclosed a criminal scheme. According to the RA National Security Service, the large Norfolk Consulting companyoperating in Armenia - a customs declarer performing customs services, maliciously evaded paying taxes, duties and other obligatory payments on an especially large scale. The company did not pay about $ 7 million to the state budget. On this fact, the Investigative Department of the National Security Service instituted criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 205 ("Evasion from payment of taxes, duties or other mandatory payments") and Part 2 of Article 308 ("Abuse of official authority, entailing by imprudence grave consequences ") of the RA Criminal Code. Until recently there have been about 7-8 organizations in the republic that dealt not only with cargo transportation, but also with the customs documents.
