Armenian election bloc manifesto based on reform of tax system

Text of report by Armenian news agency Armenpress

Yerevan, 12th May, Armenpress correspondent Shake Avoyan: The

Self-Determination Association's programme is based on an

economic programme drawn up by Gor Tovmasyan. The latter has

already been deputy of the Supreme Soviet and is now National

Assembly deputy candidate from the ONS+ bloc [National

Self-Determination Association and Homeland-Diaspora led by

Paruyr Ayrikyan] under the proportional system and has [also]

been registered at electoral precinct 19 in Yerevan under the

first-past-the-post system.

The economic programme approved by the ONS+ bloc provides

for a number of innovations, in particular in the sphere of tax

policy. Tovmasyan said in a conversation with an Armenpress

correspondent that after making economic calculations, he had

reached the conclusion that it was possible to forego profit

tax completely. There must be a 100-per-cent exemption of

private enterprises from this tax and, in the interests of

promoting an investment policy, it should not be collected from

foreign legal entities either. It is planned to reduce profit

tax on state enterprises by 50 per cent and VAT on enterprises

and organizations by the same amount.

"The state will not lose, but only gain from the

implementation of these tax reforms," Tovmasyan said.

Source: Armenpress news agency, Yerevan, in Russian 1340 gmt 12

May 99

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