Armenian Oligarch Who ‘Owns No Businesses’ Might Be Evading Taxes: Press

Armenian Prime Minister Karen Krapetyan yesterday visited the Alex Textile clothing factory. This seemingly insignificant visit, according to Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper correspondent Hayk Gevorgyan, is actually a scandalous event.

During his visit to the factory, Karapetyan was given a tour by Republican lawmaker, oligarch Samvel Aleksanyan. From a legal point of view, Aleksanyan has no connection to Alex Textile: the company is officially owned by the lawmaker’s daughter, and Aleksanyan himself has repeatedly stated that he does not own any businesses.

What’s more, Gevorgyan suggests that Alex Textile has been evading taxes: in the first quarter of 2017, he writes, the company has paid an income tax of only AMD 7.3 million.

“Taking into consideration the interest rate of income tax in Armenia, we have to assume that if Alex Textile employs 300 people, then the average monthly salary of each of them does not exceed 28,000 drams. If, on the other hand, the factory employs 500 people (which is the number mentioned in an official statement on the President’s past visit to the factory), then the salary can be no more than 20 000 drams. Let’s imagine for a moment that the average monthly salary of Alex Textile employees is AMD 100 000: if they have collectively paid an income tax of 7.3 million, then their number cannot exceed a hundred. But if there are actually 300 employees (as stated by the press service of the Government),  and their real salary amounts to at least AMD 100 000, then they should have paid an income tax not of AMD 7.3 million but AMD 20 000. Correspondingly, 500 employees should have paid AMD 35 million. In other words, in the first quarter of the year alone, Alex Textile has hidden between AMD 13-18 billion from the budget,” Gevorgyan stresses.

In conclusion, the reporter suggests that the company has either lied to Serzh Sargsyan and Karen Karapetyan about the number of its employees, or it operates in the black market, under the patronage of both the Armenian president and the prime minister.