Epress.am News from Armenia
The Public Council, a group comprised of representatives of leading political and non-governmental organizations as well as prominent public figures who advise Armenia’s leadership on key challenges facing the country, has presented a dozen or so demands to the Yerevan mayor while meeting with him recently. Among the issues raised by the group is street trade, recently banned by the city. Public Council member Hovhannes Hovhannisyan spoke on this topic at a press conference in Yerevan today.
“City hall’s decision last year to ban street trade was legitimate; it was also right from the perspective of the fight against corruption and the insanitary conditions. But the problem was not sufficiently examined,” he said.
According to Hovhannisyan, problems connected to the socioeconomic situation (of vendors), economic analyses and the socio-psychological aspect of the issue were ignored.
“I would’ve liked that how many citizens in Yerevan who work in street trade, what their income is on an average monthly or daily basis, how many family members benefit from this revenue, how much ‘taxes’ do these citizens pay, from small and large district to different levels of official authorities, were examined,” he explained, while noting that tax reductions might lead to a reduction in the shadow (economy).
In the Public Council member’s opinion, prior to resolving the issue of street trade, the problem of open and mini-markets needed to be solved by inviting vendors “at least in the first few months in the form of tax exemptions.”
Hovhannisyan also addressed the problem of conflict of interest: “When it was suggested to city hall as compensation to provide [rent-]free places in current markets, you know, today our markets are empty, but, it turns out that there are owners there too and there’s a conflict of interest here.”
In his words, not all market owners are ready to provide rent-free stalls to the street traders. Hovhannisyan sees two solutions to this problem: either market owners have to make certain concessions or city hall has to establish outdoor mini-markets.
Note, since mid-January, street vendors have been protesting the band on street trade, occasionally holding protests and demonstrations outside Yerevan City Hall and the Armenian government building.