Armenia`s Civil Aviation Committee to render paid services

ArmInfo.The services of the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia will become paid. At a meeting on April 26, the RA National Assembly Commission on Economic Affairs issued a positive conclusion on the amendments to the laws "On State Duty" and "On Aviation" submitted by the RA government in the second reading.

According to the Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and  Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia Armen Simonyan, the  Committee is responsible for regulating the situation in civil  aviation, ensuring flight safety, safety of ground facilities and  services provided in the field of aviation services and control over  the operation of aviation infrastructure. At the same time, no state  duty is charged for the services provided. In this regard, the  Committee studied international experience, which showed that  aviation authorities provide similar services on a paid basis in a  number of countries around the world. In particular, the experience  of Georgia, Latvia, Singapore and a number of other countries was  studied.

The amount of fees for services was calculated per person/hour,  taking into account the actual working time currently spent on the  specified service, the resources used, the nature of the services and  international fee practices. With the adoption of the package for  services provided in the field of aviation, it is planned to collect  a state fee for 13 groups, covering 156 services, including for  assessing the condition of airports and issuing certificates, issuing  permits for takeoffs and landings, issuing permits for air navigation  activities, assessing the situation with construction of facilities  at airports, aircraft registration, certification of airport medical  personnel, etc. When applying the state duty, the country's state  budget will be replenished with about 150 million drams annually.

The Deputy Minister said that in 2023, about 17 billion drams were  received into the country's state budget through the so-called "air  tax". He noted that the civil aviation sector is a complex mechanism  and requires more than serious control.

The laws will come into force on February 1, 2025.