The Government’s Decision Not Sufficient; Entrepreneurs Continue to Protest

Today, the entrepreneurs fighting against the Law on Turnover Tax decided to organize another protest in front of the National Assembly building. They had also protested after the extraordinary Cabinet sitting on Saturday, during which the Government made a decision, that the present law would delay the mandatory documentation until July 1, 2015.

One of the entrepreneurs spoke to an Epress.am journalists noting that such a decision is not sufficient, because their demand is the nullificiation of the law itself. The protest participant recalled that the same decision of delaying the law was made last year until February 1st of this year, however no reform was made.

“Do we have to gather seasonally and protest?” said one of the protesters. PM Abrahamyan’s statement on Saturday about certain sectors possibly being reviewed over, for example, those in the gold trade, also did not satisfy the entrepreneurs. According to the protesters, the ruling authorities have the objective of creating divisions between the protesters, in order for less people to gather during the next demonstrations.

The entrepreneurs restarted their fast growing protests from last September-October, which were halted after the government promised to delay the compulsory inventorization of products until February 1st of 2015. The protests restarted in late January, because the government refused to include other amendments to the law.

Last year, the protesters against the Law on Turnover Tax stated that they do not have possibility of inventorizing their products, because large distributors often do not give them invoices. In addition, in the case of inventorizing, their turnover would be over the legal minimum threshold of 58.3 million AMD ($126,000), so they would be forced to pay VAT, which would be impossible for small and medium sized businesses. Among the business owners, some demand that they sharply increase the threshold, while others demand the law be nullified.

Those who work in the gold trade have stressed that once the new law comes into effect they would be forced to immediately halt their work. Certain experts have noted that the inclusion of the Law on Turnover Tax would entirely wipe out small and medium sized businesses, while the members of government claim that the purpose is to fight against the illegal practices in large businesses and that they are not prepared to consider the law void.

During last year’s protest, the merchants received backlash from the owners of large marketplaces they rent space from. A few large marketplaces threatened to fire (or cancel rent contracts) those merchants who did not show up to work and protested. The most covered case was that of Vosku Shuka owner Vagharsh Abrahamyan who broke tables and showcases of those merchants who participated in the protests. the destructive behavior of Abrahamyan was not dealt with by the police.