Epress.am News from Armenia
Today, hundreds of small and medium sized business owners and merchants have gathered in front of the Armenian government building demanding that the Law on Turnover Tax be nullified.
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.
Today, Epress.am journalist spoke to the protest participants who noted that for 4 months straight the government has been “pulling our legs,” and has done nothing to fundamentally amend the law or consider it void. The protesters continually chanted “Nullify (the law).”
Later on, in the afternoon, the protesters were met with the Government’s Reception of Citizens and Appeals department head Aleksander Ghazaryan, who proposed to form a delegation of 10 people and enter the building to hear their demands. The protesters refused the proposal and demanded that Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan come down to meet them. Otherwise, they promised to continue their protests on an everyday basis.
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.