Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

PM Tigran Sargsyan's introductory remarks at cabinet sitting

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • PM Tigran Sargsyan's introductory remarks at cabinet sitting

    Office of the Prime Minister, Armenia
    gov.am
    Dec 5 2010

    Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan's introductory remarks at cabinet sitting


    Dear colleagues,

    We have to begin today's session with several assignments. You may
    know that after visiting Brussels we stepped up joint efforts with the
    European Union, the World Trade Organization and those countries with
    which we have free trade arrangements. The point is that we must
    comply with our international commitments, and today strict orders
    have to be formulated for the State Revenue Committee concerning the
    ways of ensuring compliance with the WTO regulations as of January 1,
    as well as with those arrangements reached under bilateral free trade
    arrangements which prevail over the Armenian laws as stipulated by
    Armenia's legislative.

    To avoid any broad interpretation of the matter, the State Revenue
    Committee should be directed to apply such fixed payment rates for
    tobacco products as would not exceed the mark of 15 percent of their
    customs value which is a rule of the World Trade Organization, and we
    are obliged to observe it from January 1, because there are cases when
    the rate of taxation is 17, 18 percent and so on..

    Our studies have shown that we are in a position to comply with this
    requirement as of January 1..

    The second assignment bears on the bilateral free trade agreements
    concerning the alcoholic drinks. Here too, we are in duty to provide
    compliance with the obligations assumed before our partners regarding
    the import of alcoholic drinks: the State Revenue Committee is
    accordingly directed to give preference to free trade arrangements.

    By honoring our international commitments, we simultaneously meet the
    obligations assumed before the European Union which means that those
    agreements concluded with the European Union, including the ones on
    loan and grant assistance will come into force and, as a State, we
    will have to ensure that these regimes are applied in the Republic of
    Armenia as of January1.

    The second assignment concerns all the ministries and agencies. We
    have draft laws submitted to the National Assembly and we are in for
    the next four-day debates at which either the State budget law is to
    be discussed. Nonetheless, some thirty bills are deemed to be of top
    priority by our cabinet ministers and the heads of government
    agencies.

    You are hereby told to finalize them with your colleagues from the
    National Assembly and report back the outcome to the Prime Minister so
    that we could ask for an extraordinary sitting of Parliament in order
    to have them passed by yearend as they affect the reform process. You
    have a week at your disposal to that effect.

    And the third key problem to discuss is the introduction of the
    institute of interconnectivity and coherence. I have already stated it
    while referring to the functions carried out by the State Revenue
    Committee, namely that the larger business manages to shatter the
    functions on small parts in order to avoid the payment of taxes during
    customs clearing. Therefore, the State Revenue Committee will have to
    apply the institute of interconnectivity to expose the linkages
    between the separate components so declared.

    We must acknowledge the bill of top urgency and ask for extraordinary
    debates: it had to be submitted along with the State budget bill as we
    had a political decision and the directive of the President of the
    Republic of Armenia.




    From: A. Papazian
Working...
X