ArmInfo.The banking system of Armenia in Q1 2022 increased tax deductions to the state treasury by 4.5% per annum - up to 12.8 billion drams ($26.3 million), against a decrease of 3.2% a year earlier in the same period. 77.2% or 10.6 billion drams of this amount was paid in direct taxes, with a y-o-y increase of 8.2% (against a 12.5% decline a year earlier).
According to the RA State Revenue Committee, 9 out of 17 operating banks were included in the top 100 of the 1000 largest taxpayers of Armenia in Q1 2022, instead of 12 a year earlier.
Among them, ACBA Bank, Ameriabank, Armbusinessbank, INECOBANK and VTB Bank Armenia were in the top five-taxpaying banks. Ardshinbank and Armeconombank were instead of the last two a year earlier.
In Q1 2022, the above mentioned top five-taxpaying banks sent 7 billion drams to the state treasury through taxes, which is 7.7% higher than the indicator of a year ago, of which 5.8 billion - through direct taxes (with a y-o-y growth of 7.4%). These top five banks account for 55% of the total amount of tax deductions to the state treasury by the banking system. And for Q1 2022, the banking system accounted for 3.8% of the total tax deductions of 1,000 large taxpayers in Armenia against 4.6% a year earlier.
The leader among banks in terms of the amount of taxes paid is ACBA Bank - 24th place (against 17th a year earlier), paying 1.7 billion drams (of which 1.4 billion - in direct taxes). Ameriabank took the 25th place (against the 20th a year earlier), having directed over 1.5 billion drams to the state budget, of which about 1.4 billion - for direct taxes (including profit tax and income tax). They are followed by: Armbusinessbank - 33rd place (against 24th a year earlier), paying 1.4 billion drams, of which over 1.2 billion - in direct taxes, INECOBANK - 40th place (against 50th a year earlier), paying 1.2 billion drams, of which 1.1 billion drams - for direct taxes. VTB Bank Armenia closes the top five banks-large taxpayers, taking 45th place (against 58th a year earlier) and paying over 1 billion drams, of which 682 million - in direct taxes. The first hundred large taxpayers also included Ardshinbank - 55th place, having paid 980.6 million drams, of which 803.3 million - in direct taxes, Armeconombank - 70th place (785.2 million drams, of which 693.8 million - in direct taxes), Converse Bank - 84th place (679.6 million drams, of which 584.8 million - in direct taxes), Armswissbank - 93rd place (628.1 million drams, of which 549 million - in direct taxes). The other banks ranked as follows: IDBank - 104th place (557.2 million drams, of which 484 million - in direct taxes), Araratbank - 111th place (518.9 million drams, of which 452.7 million - in direct taxes), Unibank - 116th place (507 million drams, of which 425.6 million - in direct taxes), HSBC Bank Armenia - 135th place (419.8 million drams, of which 226.2 million - in direct taxes), Evocabank - 147th place (383.6 million drams, of which 326.1 million - on direct taxes), Byblos Bank Armenia - 321st place (170.8 million drams, of which 147.4 million drams - on direct taxes), and Mellat Bank - 650th place (82.6 million drams, of which 74.7 million drams - for direct taxes).
It should be noted that out of 17 banks operating in Armenia, only Artsakhbank was not included in the list of 1,000 large taxpayers during the reporting period, which is explained by the replenishment of this list by state agencies, which displace economic entities, including financial organizations, from this list. Prior to this, Artsakhbank had always appeared in this list, in particular, a year earlier it ranked 820th with 54.7 million drams paid to the state budget through taxes, of which 50.8 million - through direct taxes.
It may be recalled that for Q1 2021 Armenian banks paid 12.1 billion drams of taxes to the state treasury, of which 87.5% or 9.8 billion drams were paid in direct taxes. At that time, the top five among taxpaying banks were ACBA Bank, Ameriabank, Armbusinessbank, Ardshinbank and Armeconombank, which in total ensured tax payments in the amount of 6.5 billion drams or 53.5% of the total tax deductions to the state treasury by the banking system. (The settlement rate of the dram as of March 31, 2022 was 485.91 AMD/$1).