Epress.am News from Armenia
The demands of retailers importing goods from Turkey and other countries have been partially met: the customs fee per 1 kg of goods which was recently raised to $8 has now become $6, and there are talks to lower that $6 to $4 (the original customs fee per 1 kg of imported goods).
Recall, MPs Larisa Alaverdyan and Anahit Bakhshyan from the Heritage Party, as well as Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) MP Artsvik Minasyan, were working on this issue this week.
Speaking to Epress.am, merchant Gevorg Saroyan said their issue, “with all the relevant documents, is under the control of the parliamentarians.”
“The deputies have also gotten in touch with intermediary [cargo shipping] companies, which have said the increase in fees was tied to Turkey. Now the deputies are trying to find out exactly what is connected with Turkey,” he said.
In order to ship goods into Armenia from Turkey, Syria and other countries, merchants turn to cargo shipping companies, which, in fact, increased the tariff.
According to Saroyan, in any case, they plan to continue their demonstrations, though they haven’t yet made a clear decision on future action.
Earlier, they had met with the transport and communication minister; however, he had said that cargo shipping companies are private entities and state control doesn’t exist in this matter.