The Government of the Republic of Armenia

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan called a consultative meeting involving representatives of domestic construction companies and heads of relevant government departments to discuss the initiative of the Government to develop the construction sector.

In particular, Prime Minister Abrahamyan introduced the Government’s new housing program. The program provides an opportunity to subsidize interest payments servicing mortgage loans raised for the purchase of apartments directly from the developers to enhance thereby the construction sector of the economy, in order to implement, along with the public sector of social policy in the area of housing, reducing the interest payments from the amounts of income tax, paid by the borrowers.

Welcoming the initiative, developer representatives submitted their comments and suggestions on the program. In particular, it was noted that the program will be encourage not only the consumers, but also the developers, and will contribute significantly to the development of the construction sector and the economy, as a whole.

The Prime Minister instructed the Minister of Urban Development to organize a separate discussion with the participation of representatives of construction and banking sectors to discuss not only the aforementioned comprehensive program, but also to address the issue of interest rates on long-term mortgages.

The meeting next discussed possibilities and mechanisms for offering fiscal privileges to economic entities operating in border rural communities, reconsidering the threshold for VAT holidays applicable to imports under investment programs implemented by domestic and foreign investors in order to stimulate growth in investments. To help those economic entities liable to VAT payments build up and effectively manage their working assets, the meeting looked at the possibility of gradual overhaul of the system of VAT transfers (designed to reduce the amount of VAT accruals).