Minister of Economic Development and Investments on a possible  successor to "Spayka" LLC: if there is a gap, something will fill it 

ArmInfo.Armenian Minister of Economic Development and Investments Tigran Khachatryan does not think that tax claims against Spayka are aimed at "expelling" the  company from the agricultural market. Khachatryan stated this on  April 11 in an interview with journalists.

According to the minister, the "place" of the Spayka company in the  market will not be empty for a long time. "Spayka" issued a public  statement that it might not be able to fully realize the purchase of  agricultural products due to financial problems, thereby sending  signals to the market about the new opportunities that have been  created, and where there are opportunities there will be new players,  "said the head of the Ministry of Economic Development and  investment.

At the same time, as the minister stressed, according to the current  legislation, the criminal responsibility from the head of Spayka,  David Ghazaryan, will be removed after full compensation of the  damage to the state.

A week earlier, ArmInfo, citing the SRC, reported that the SRC  Investigation Department revealed serious tax violations on the part  of Spayka LLC in the amount of 7 billion drams (about $ 14.4  million). It was reported that only in the period from January 1,2015  to January 11,2016 the company, using shadow schemes and not  declaring real data on imported goods within the time limits  stipulated by law, did not submit the necessary customs declarations.

For committing these violations on April 4, 2019, the company's  general director David Ghazaryan was charged under part 2 of Article  205 of the Armenian Criminal Code (evasion of taxes, duties, or other  obligatory payments exceeding a thousand times the minimum wage set  at the moment of the crime). David Ghazaryan was arrested by a court  decision on April 10.

Immediately after this, Karen Baghdasaryan, head of the Spayka  project department, said that the court's decision to arrest the  Spayka director had jeopardized all the company's plans. "Our company  was given loans to the most reputable organizations in the world. And  now the whole world will laugh at us. You shouldn't treat  entrepreneurs like that. You just ruin the economy," said  Baghdasaryan, addressing David Ananyan, Chairman of the State Revenue  Committee.

He also said that the company was to receive $ 67 million from the  EBRD for the implementation of regular projects, because of the tax  arrears identified, it would not receive these funds. Spayka, which  has been purchasing in Armenia in more than 80 communities since  2010, has been mediated by more than a dozen communities, said that  under these conditions it will not be able to use working capital and  organize pre-planned purchases.