Epress.am News from Armenia
Alex Grig, one of the companies owned by oligarch, Republican Party of Armenia MP Samvel Aleksanyan, has leased another company also belonging to Aleksanyan, Lusastgh Sugar.
Local daily Haykakan Zhamanak turned to the State Revenue Committee to find out why Armenian sugar manufacturer Lusastgh Sugar is not on the list of large taxpayers.
RA State Revenue Committee Deputy Vakhtang Mirumyan said that the sugar plant is leased to Alex Grig, which is why it’s not on the list. According to the newspaper’s economic analyst Hayk Gevorgyan, then the taxes that Lusastgh Sugar was to have paid should now be paid by Alex Grig. The analyst noted that a company being leased by another company belonging to the same person makes no sense, and thus, requires a closer inspection of taxes paid.
“If Alex Grig is paying the taxes of the sugar producer then that company in the period mentioned has to significantly increase the money paid into the state budget. But the reality is quite different. In the first half of 2012, Alex Grig paid 9 billion 279 million AMD, and in the same period this year, it paid 6 billion 746 million AMD. In other words, the taxes paid by Alex Grig decreased by more than 2.5 billion AMD, or 27%,” wrote Gevorgyan.