Epress.am News from Armenia
What obstacles do entrepreneurs in Armenia face when they also have civic responsibilities? In the first part of the ongoing series, entrepreneur, civic activist Vardges Gaspari tallked to Epress.am about his experience with Institute of Metrology; in the second part, Gaspari speaks about price controls.
Part 2: Price Controls
Imported goods, Gaspari says, have 9-digit codes, to which Armenia adds another 3 digits; import duty is calculated based upon that code. Armenia’s adding it’s own digits to the original code, according to the entrepreneur, is illogical as these 3 digits, which are not published on any official government website, are often determined randomly and can vary from product to product. The lack of transparency, he says, creates corruption risks.
It also happens when two power transformers of the same type – which Gaspary imports – are charged varying import duties, while in another episode, authorities set a higher control price on a much less powerful transformer.
“I complained, of course: how can two products of the same company and with the same parameters be charged such different rates? I even appealed to the prosecutor’s office; but I didn’t get any response from anywhere. They usually only issue me some irrelevant letters. This is nothing but a plain bribe demand,” the entrepreneur notes.
Details in the video: