Agricultural equipment import in Armenia may become vat-free
06.05.2011,
00:22
Importers of pesticides, fertilizers and agricultural equipment in Armenia may be exempted from paying value-added tax, Gagik Khachatryan, chairman of the State Revenue Committee, said.
YEREVAN, May 5. /ARKA/. Importers of pesticides, fertilizers and agricultural equipment in Armenia may be exempted from paying value-added tax, Gagik Khachatryan, chairman of the State Revenue Committee, said Thursday after a meeting aimed at discussing the processing industry’s problems.
“At this meeting, we came up with a proposal to exempt importers of pesticides, fertilizers and agricultural equipment from VAT in an effort to spur development of agriculture and processing industry, which is directly connected with the agriculture sector,” he said.
The chairman of the committee voiced concern over too low taxes in the processing segment.
“Of course, there are some problems in this area, such as difficulties in selling and exporting products, but nevertheless, taking into account this, we have come to conclusion that taxes here should be increased,” he said.
Khachatryan said that now taxes in the processing industry make up only one percent of the total output.
“This industry’s turnover grew 35% in 2010, compared with the previous year, to AMD 65 billion, but taxes remained unchanged,” he said. “Average annual taxes from this industry amount to AMD 4.7- 5.2 billion.”
Khachatryan pointed out documentation turnover as another painful problem.
He said that the discussion was focused on favorable impacts of a series of tax reforms on business and removal of obstacles.
“The aim is to let businessmen focus only on implementation of their business programs,” he said. “We also spoke about current things in this area and presented a package of reforms.”
Khachatryan also singled out creation of a risk-controlling system among the State Revenue Committee’s top-priority objectives.
President Serzh Sargsyan, Agriculture Minister Sergo Karapetyan and representatives of more than 20 processing industry companies were present at the meeting. -0-
“At this meeting, we came up with a proposal to exempt importers of pesticides, fertilizers and agricultural equipment from VAT in an effort to spur development of agriculture and processing industry, which is directly connected with the agriculture sector,” he said.
The chairman of the committee voiced concern over too low taxes in the processing segment.
“Of course, there are some problems in this area, such as difficulties in selling and exporting products, but nevertheless, taking into account this, we have come to conclusion that taxes here should be increased,” he said.
Khachatryan said that now taxes in the processing industry make up only one percent of the total output.
“This industry’s turnover grew 35% in 2010, compared with the previous year, to AMD 65 billion, but taxes remained unchanged,” he said. “Average annual taxes from this industry amount to AMD 4.7- 5.2 billion.”
Khachatryan pointed out documentation turnover as another painful problem.
He said that the discussion was focused on favorable impacts of a series of tax reforms on business and removal of obstacles.
“The aim is to let businessmen focus only on implementation of their business programs,” he said. “We also spoke about current things in this area and presented a package of reforms.”
Khachatryan also singled out creation of a risk-controlling system among the State Revenue Committee’s top-priority objectives.
President Serzh Sargsyan, Agriculture Minister Sergo Karapetyan and representatives of more than 20 processing industry companies were present at the meeting. -0-
