Big Businesses Continue to be Spared at the Expense of Small-Scale Taxpayers: Paper

In the list of the top 1,000 taxpayers in Armenia published by the State Revenue Committee yesterday, Ruling Republican Party of Armenia MP, oligarch Samvel Aleksanyan's name catches the eye with its "passivity," reports local daily Haykakan Zhamanak.

The newspaper notes that the two large companies Aleksanyan owns, Alex Grig and Sam-Ser Group, together paid 24.8 billion AMD in taxes in 2013, which is only 2.9% more than  in 2012. 

"That is, despite Aleksanyan expanding his businesses day by day and concentrating on new sectors, there is practically no increase in the taxes he pays," reports the opposition paper.  

The 1,000 top taxpayers in 2013 together paid 665 billion AMD in taxes and duties, which is 19% higher than in 2012. "Maintained in the list is the by now stubbornly enriched trend in the last years, when 'small' taxpayers assume a greater load to supplement the budget.

"Thus, the top 30 taxpayers in the published list in 2013 together paid 277.4 billion  AMD instead of the 239.5 billion AMD  in 2012. In other words, they increased taxes by only 15.8%. While the last 30 taxpayers in that list together paid 3 billion AMD instead of the 2.4 billion [paid] in 2012. In this case, the increase was 24%. That is, the smaller the taxpayer, the more taxes he pays, and vice versa: the bigger the taxpayer, the lower the rate that his taxes increase," reports the paper.