ArmInfo.Based on its obligations, the State Revenue Committee of Armenia initiated and submitted for discussion to the public a package of draft laws on introducing amendments to the RA Bank Secrecy, Insurance and Insurance Activities Act and amendments to the RA Tax Code.
However, as the SRC press service reports, being the structure responsible by law for secrecy, the State Revenue Committee, due to artificial obstacles, is sometimes deprived of the opportunity to fulfill its obligations.
<Based on the public reaction to the bills submitted and taking into account that regulation of the issue is possible only through other procedural procedures for obtaining this information, SRC at this stage refrains from further discussions of the bills submitted on bank secrecy, insurance and insurance activities and changes to RA Tax Code>, the Committee said in a statement.
Recall that in September last year, amendments and additions to the laws on "Criminal Procedure" and "On Bank Secrecy" were approved, providing for some disclosure of banking information. According to previous legislation, investigators and prosecutors could obtain bank account information only with respect to suspects and accused. At the same time, the accounts of related parties were not subject to verification. As the then First Deputy Minister of Justice Rafik Grigoryan stated at that time, the regulation of the legislation in force at that time prevented the investigation of cases related to corruption risks, since often the investigation of corruption can be related not only to these individuals, but also to people connected with them, and in some cases the evidence that is necessary to attract a person as an accused, inaccessible to the investigation due to bank secrecy.
The amendments lifted the restrictions, but at the same time, specific mechanisms of guarantees and restrictions were provided. In particular, a full list of crimes has been established for which a petition for disclosing bank secrets can be submitted, as well as control is provided by the prosecutor's office to provide a petition. In addition, the court must present a reasoned decision on the application, assess whether this is the only aspect and whether it is impossible to find out in other ways, as well as the possibility of notifying the person of the decision made and the possibility of challenging it.
Some experts believe that the bill of secrecy is fraught with many threats to the banking system and is fraught with the outflow of capital from banking institutions of Armenia. The Central Bank of Armenia, in response, explained that these changes in no way cancel banking secrecy - they only clarify the list of data requested by court order.