DRAFT POLITICAL DECISIONS ON TAX ADMINISTRATION TO BE
SUBMITTED TO ARMENIAN PRESIDENT
15-05-2008 17:00:00 | Armenia | Economy
YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian president will
have a meeting with representatives of Armenia's business
circles in a few days. During the meeting, some draft political
decisions on tax administration will be submitted to the
president, the chairman of the Union of Employers (Manufacturers
and Businessmen) of Armenia (UMBA) Arsen Ghazarian stated at the
May 14 press conference.
In his words, the rates of achieving a growth in the
efficiency of tax and customs administration will increase in
case of using IT tools. "As a public figure and businessman, I
believe that if the current government pursues the strategy
and tactics it has adopted, the situation in these sectors in a
year will notably differ from the current situation. We will
finally be able to speak about qualitative changes to be
perceived by ordinary businessmen and citizens," he stated.
In the opinion of A. Ghazarian, it is impossible to improve
efficiency in the customs sector without a serious use of IT.
The major task here is e-governance, the introduction of the
institution of electronic customs brokers, which will allow to
rule out the contacts of the representatives of enterprises with
customs officials.
He said that it is already the second month that quite
serious steps have been taken to make reforms in customs
administartion, such as the electronic declaration of goods
subject to customs clearance, raising the status of customs
warehouses, and assessment of the values of goods in customs
warehouses and their customs clearance. "We have held four
discussions with employees of the State Customs Committee (SCC)
adjunct to the RA government, and a sitting of the newly-created
Public Council adjunct to the SCC took place on May 14. It is
the second month that the UMBA has not registered any cases of
protectionism and corruption with respect to the SCC," A.
Ghazarian said.
According to him, the use of information technologies by
the State Tax Service adjunct to the RA government is a
necessary but insufficient means of improving administration.
The procedures of presenting tax reports in an electronic way
and checking the tax liabilities of enterprises, which have not
made violations in the past, by an analysis (without checks) are
now being discussed and will be approved in a week or two. A.
Ghazarian underlined that the operative work of the tax service
will focus on the fight against shadow economy.
He said that the possibility of introducing the system of
centralized electronic control of the data of cash registers in
fairs by the tax service is being discussed.