YEREVAN, JUNE 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian prime minister Tigran Sargsian on June 17 had a meeting with the chief of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) mission Marta Castello-Branco, the IMF Resident Representative to Armenia Nienke Oomes and representatives of the IMF Office in Armenia. The IMF mission is on a visit to Armenia with the aim of discussing the macroeconomic policies and structural reforms. During the meeting with the prime minister, the IMF report on tax reforms in Armenia was presented. The joint discussions with the IMF will form a basis for future negotiations on a new program of cooperation with the IMF. According to the RA Government Information and PR Department, the chief advisor to the Armenian president on economic issues, the minister of economy, the minister of finance, the head of the State Tax Service adjunct to the RA government, the chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia and the chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Economic Issues were present at the meeting. The IMF mission chief said that the IMF is encouraged by the tax sector reforms reflected in the program of the Armenian government. In her words, the reforms are in line with the IMF principles. The mission representatives expressed an opinion that the program of tax reforms is quite comprehensive and aimed at poverty reduction, maintenance of the economic growth rates and reduction of corruption in Armenia, and the current task is to implement these reforms, taking into account the comments and proposals of the report. During discussion of the report, the necessity for informing the public about the logic of reforms in a timely and accessible way was inderlined. T. Sargsian considered the report's comments as extremely interesting. In his opinion, they create a basis for Armenia's further cooperation with the IMF and the development and implementation of a new program.

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