ArmInfo. Banking system of Armenia in the first quarter of 2021 reduced tax deductions to the state treasury by 3.2% per annum - to 12.15 billion drams ($ 22.9 million), against an increase of 12.6% a year earlier in the same period.
Of this amount, 87.5% or 9.8 billion drams were paid in direct taxes, with an annual decline of 12.5% (against 8.7% growth a year earlier). According to the RA State Revenue Committee, 12 out of 17 operating banks were in the first hundred of 1000 largest taxpayers in Armenia in the first quarter of 2021, as in the previous year.
Among them, ACBA Bank, Ameriabank, Armbusinessbank, Ardshinbank and Armeconombank were in the top five taxpaying banks, whereas a year earlier INECOBANK appeared instead of the latter. In the first quarter of 2021, the first five banks sent 6.5 billion drams or $ 12.2 million to the state treasury (with a slowdown in annual growth from 10.3% to 0.8%), of which 5.4 billion - for direct taxes (with an annual decline of 8.5%).
The top five banks account for 53.5% of the total amount of tax payments to the state treasury by the banking system. And the banking system accounted for 4.6% of the total tax deductions of 1000 large taxpayers in Armenia for the first quarter of 2021, against 5.1% a year earlier. The leader among banks in terms of taxes paid is ACBA Bank - 17th place (against 26th a year earlier), which paid 1.7 billion drams (of which 1.4 billion - for direct taxes). Ameriabank took 20th place (against 24th a year earlier), having directed over 1.4 billion drams to the state budget, of which 1.3 billion - for direct taxes (including income tax and profit tax). This is followed by: Armbusinessbank - 24th place (against 32nd a year earlier), which paid out 1.2 billion drams, of which 1.1 billion - in direct taxes, Ardshinbank - 39th place (against 41st a year earlier) paid over 1 billion drams, of which 893.3 million - for direct taxes. The first five banks-large taxpayers this time is closed by Armeconombank, which took 45th place (against 61st a year earlier) and paid 982.4 million drams, of which 659.7 million - for direct taxes.
The first hundred large taxpayers also included INECOBANK - 50th place, which paid 869.5 million AMD, of which 764.3 million - for direct taxes, VTB Bank (Armenia) - 58th place (791.7 million AMD, of which 624.1 million - for direct taxes), Araratbank - 60th place (776.5 million AMD, of which 493.8 million - for direct taxes), Converse Bank - 66th place (719.5 million AMD, of which 580.3 million - for direct taxes), Unibank - 83rd place (605.9 million AMD, of which 483.9 million - for direct taxes), HSBC Bank Armenia - 91st place (575 million AMD, of which 248.2 million - for direct taxes) and Armswissbank - 95th place (543.3 million drams, of which 519.8 million - for direct taxes).
The rest of the banks were placed as follows: IDBank - 137th place (361.8 million drams, of which 303.8 million - for direct taxes), Byblos Bank Armenia - 296th place (159.3 million drams, of which 137.4 million drams - for direct taxes ), Evocabank - 352 place (131.8 million AMD, of which 85.2 million - for direct taxes), Mellat Bank - 642 place (71.6 million AMD, of which 65.6 million - for direct taxes), and Artsakhbank - 820 place (54.7 million drams, of which 50.8 million- for direct taxes).
To note, for the I quarter of 2020 Armenian banks transferred 12.5 billion drams to the state treasury, of which 89.5% or 11.2 billion drams were paid through direct taxes. At that time, the leading five among taxpaying banks were represented by Ameriabank, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, Armbusinessbank, INECOBANK and Ardshinbank, which in total provided tax payments in the amount of 6.4 billion AMD or 51.2% of the total tax payments to the state treasury by the banking system. (The estimated AMD exchange rate as of March 31, 2021 was 531.17 AMD / $ 1, against 504.47 AMD / $ 1 as of March 31, 2020).
