Monday, 14 March 2016
Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council Holds Meeting
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan chaired a regular meeting of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council. Proceeding to the agenda, the Council first discussed the performance of the assignments given at the previous meeting. In particular, discussed were the steps taken to enable hotel businesses benefit from the privileges available to family business.
It was reported that for this purpose the law “On amending the RA law on taxes was developed and submitted to the National Assembly in the prescribed manner, which came into effect this January 1, enabling several private entrepreneurs engaged in hotel business to benefit from this privileges.
Coming to the proposal for establishing differentiated rates of local taxes for SMEs and larger businesses, which were also discussed at the previous meeting, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan told those concerned to submit a draft as shortly as possible, which would allow local authorities to take into account the outlet area while considering the factors of base rates of local taxes without reviewing fees.
Then the meeting looked at the possibility of reconsidering the rates of import and export duties for small-value goods and commodities. During the exchange of opinions that followed, the stakeholders came up with different approaches and recommendations. The Prime Minister instructed the relevant departments to follow up on the proposals voiced at the meeting in order to finalize the positions.
The Council discussed and approved the proposal to engage Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Andranik Alexanyan and Armenian Employers’ Union Executive Director Marine Zhamkochyan as members of the SME Board. During the meeting reference was made to a number of other issues.
