Head of Mantashyants Business Club raises alarm over legislation by  Ministry of Justice 

ArmInfo. The Ministry of Justice of Armenia has presented an bill that violates the principle of the presumption of innocence. This point of view was expressed on  a social network by the co-founder and head of Mantashyants Business  Club. Vahram Mirakyan, touching upon the draft amendments to the  Administrative Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia initiated by  the Ministry of Justice.

According to the justification for the document, the Ministry of  Justice, in particular, proposes to consider Article 83 of the  Administrative Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia as invalid.  The latter states that the acceptance of a claim for challenge  suspends the execution of the contested administrative act until the  entry into force of a judicial act resolving the case on the merits  in this case.

In other words, if the inspectors of the State Revenue Committee came  and said that you did not pay 800 million drams in taxes, and you do  not agree with this and go to court, then going to court will not  prevent you from paying the tax, Mirakyan wrote.

According to the head of the Union, the legislative proposal is  absurd for several reasons. First of all, as he notes, the State  Revenue Committee inspectors are very weak in terms of literacy and  professionalism. This is evidenced by the fact that the Committee  loses about 80% of court cases: from 2019 to 2024, 10,779 lawsuits  were filed against the State Revenue Committee, of which the agency  lost 7,163. ,  he notes. 

In addition, Mirakyan emphasizes, the duration of consideration of  cases in the administrative court in the order of administrative  proceedings in both instances is on average more than two years,  therefore, in the event of making incorrect decisions, a citizen or  enterprise will be unfairly deprived of the opportunity to manage  their funds for an average of two years in the amount of a fine,  which, naturally, will affect economic efficiency, in some cases  leading to the bankruptcy of the enterprise.

The principle of presumption of innocence is also violated. , - noted Vahram Mirakyan.

Earlier, experts expressed concerns about this bill. This is a  clearly unconstitutional bill: if it is adopted, citizens will either  stop applying to administrative courts altogether, or will be forced  to wait for years for the return of the amount of the illegally  imposed fine>, - wrote constitutional and administrative law  specialist Vahe Grigoryan on a social network. , - in turn, noted tax  expert, member of the Council of the Association of Small and Medium  Entrepreneurs Tigran Keyan. The fact that an administrative fine must  be paid regardless of an appeal means that the right of citizens to  appeal administrative acts and protect themselves from unlawful  decisions is undermined. "Especially when it comes to the size and  legality of fines, this bill could become a way for citizens to evade  justice," he added.