Armenian authorities are robbing their own citizens

ASince 2020, a mandatory income tax of 23 percent is introduced in Armenia for all citizens aged from 18 to 65 years, according to the bill. Recipients of money transfers from abroad, villagers and all self-employed citizens will also be taxed.

MP from the Republican Party of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan said that in line with this bill, all citizens of Armenia aged between 18 and 65 years must submit declarations of their income. This means, for instance, a villager selling his/her product must declare the income received from the sale. Besides, family members of citizens who have left for work abroad, sending money to their wives and children to Armenia, must declare their income. After the declaration, according to the project, 23 percent of this income should be directed to the budget. "This is simply unacceptable. Such a project cannot be implemented. Within the framework of my authority, I will do everything to ensure that this initiative does not become a reality," declared MP.

A new bill of Armenia on the introduction of the mechanism of taxation of remittances is the next step of the government of the country, aimed at robbing its own population, Ukrainian expert Alexander Okhrimenko believes.

As the economist said, the implementation of this document will have a negative impact primarily on the poor.

Armenian government is not able to bring the country's economy out of a protracted crisis and is already using any means to plug holes in the budget, stressed Okhrimenko.

He considers that desperate steps of the authorities confirm that the Armenian economy is indeed in a hopeless state and this may drag on for years.

"This new law means that a simple inhabitant in a village or in a region, having sold his products, must declare every penny of profit received and send 23 percent of income to the treasury. It is possible that if such a tough law is adopted, a new wave of protests may begin in Armenia, which will further aggravate the already precarious socioeconomic situation in the country,” the Ukrainian economist said.

Armenia is among 15 countries of the world whose economy is supported by transfers, and without labor migrants, its economy would have collapsed long ago. According to the International Monetary Fund, in the past few years alone, bank transfers accounted for 16 percent of the country's GDP. Financial receipts from abroad from migrants, according to the World Bank, are comparable with the state budget of Armenia.

The initiative of the government of Armenia, which is still in a “postrevolutionary state”, looks far ambiguous for a number of reasons. One of them is the easily predictable negative effect of the impact on local banks. Half of the financial institutions of Armenia are extremely dependent on receiving commissions from servicing remittance flows into the country. And the reduction of this flow in the case of the implementation of the plans of the “revolutionary government” is quite expected, and even inevitable.

One thing is clear - the current authorities in Armenia have the task to replenish the budget. It does not matter that these methods are monstrous, they look at the population as an empty space.