OREANDA-NEWS. May 03, 2011. President Serzh Sargsyan invited a meeting at the administrative office of the Vellex Group companies, which was attended by the managers and owners of the mining companies operating in Armenia. Before the meeting, the President was briefed on the investment programs of the Vellex Group companies and results of the activities of the companies comprising the Group in mining, metallurgy, tourism and other areas.

At the beginning of the meeting, Serzh Sargsyan underscored that the main goal is to discuss with the representatives of the companies issues pertinent to the present and the future of mining industry in Armenia, development programs of the companies engaged in that area, their cooperation with the government and the State Revenue Committee as well as to speak about problems existing in the area of mining and avenues to address them.

“As you already know, we have started the process of reformation in the tax and customs areas, and a couple of days ago, at the sitting of the National Security Council we approved a three-year plan of reforms in the tax and customs areas which is aimed at easing the burden for the taxpayers and simplification of the entire system.

Several day ago, the government came up with a new initiative which has already been qualified by the experts as tax amnesty. In fact, it’s not a tax amnesty. It’s a proper approach which created exceptional opportunities for the companies to work with the State Revenue Committee, develop the timetable for the cancellation of the unpaid taxes from the previous years and let off fines and penalties. It is beneficial for the businesses, and it is beneficial for the state. I believe, many of you have already started to work electronically with the tax structures, and it undoubtedly opens a new page in our interrelations. There will be no shortage of alike initiatives in the future,” President Serzh Sargsyan said at the meeting with the representatives of the business community.

President Sargsyan noted that interaction between large, as well as small and medium enterprises will be based on cooperation - work style that leads to the creation of artificial problems is unacceptable for the state. Serzh Sargsyan underscored that in the process of reformation there must be no reduction of budget receipts, “I simply rule it out, because we cannot reduce social, educational, health care, or defense expenses. There will be no unpaid or long overdue pensions or wages. We simply rule it out. Thus, during the process of reformation, we all need to be very constructive, since such approaches emanate for the interests of the businesses and the state alike, and I anticipate that your joint activities will be continuous and efficient.

I have started my series of meetings with major businesses from the mining area because mining is an important part of our economy. Today’s prices at the international market of non-ferrous metals allow to draw new programs for development and look toward the future with greater confidence. That’s another reason why I urge you all to expand, to create new programs. On one hand, the owners will get more profit, on the other, new jobs will be created, and the state, naturally, will get additional tax revenues,” President Sargsyan said.

At the meeting, the Minister of Economy Tigran Davtian presented the general economic outline of the mining industry, of the current problems and state approaches on the resolution of these problems and designs for the development of the mining area. Later, the Head of the State Revenue Committee Gagik Khatchatrian spoke about the peculiarities of the mining area and tax policy which is based on that peculiarities. He also presented the dynamics of the area’s development and, respectively, tax collection rate; he also spoke about cooperation between the SRC and the companies engaged in mining. Afterwards, there took place a discussion on the presented approaches and proposals.