Why did businessman Samvel Aleksanyan decide to change the way of paying taxes?

The State Revenue Committee of Armenia has finally released the list of large taxpayers of the first quarter of this year. The fees of the organizations in the list have risen, but there are still oddities in terms of tax revenues.

Based on the list released by the State Revenue Committee, in the first quarter, 1,000 large taxpayers paid a total of AMD 212.2 billion in taxes (33.6 billion more than the previous year). There is almost 19% growth, and unquestionably, this is a high and even record-setting indicator.

Perhaps it is necessary to ask the State Revenue Committee how it managed to record such a high growth indicator when there is only 6.5% economic activity. If this is truly at the expense of the reduction of shadow economy, then indeed, this is commendable. But if the tax authorities achieved this through known and unknown methods, we can only express concern, especially since there are some grounds for this. Revenues with minus signs are more often seen in the releases of the State Revenue Committee recently, but this hadn’t been seen in the list of large taxpayers to this day.

For example, how can we understand that the profit tax of the Transgaz Company made up AMD -22.9 billion in the first quarter of the year? How is it that the City Company (belonging to former oligarch Samvel Aleksanyan who has close ties with the new authorities) paid AMD -986 million in income taxes in the first quarter? Does this mean Samvel Aleksanyan has to pay dues to the budget or the opposite?

Of course, this is not the only interesting episode related to this businessman in the list of large taxpayers.

Aleksanyan’s Alex Holding, which fulfilled its tax obligations of more than AMD 3.3 billion in the first quarter of last year, paid only AMD 132.4 million to the State Budget in the same period of this year. Basically, the company paid 25 times less. This might seem surprising at first sight, but this is the case.

This is the case because, in new Armenia, this businessman has decided to show that he is fulfilling his tax obligations in a new way, that is, under the name of not one, but several companies. It is a fact that Aleksanyan would constantly do business under the name of several organizations in the past as well, and it is clear that this is not an end in itself.

It seems as though there is a new company that will replace Alex Holding as well. Right after shift of power in Armenia, the businessman registered a new company (Alex & Holding), which is expanding its activities more and more.

Although it worked for a couple of months, it paid an AMD 2.8 billion tax last year, and the main part — at the end of the year. In the fourth quarter, the company’s taxes made up nearly AMD 2.2 billion.

The company started working actively in the beginning of this year as well. In the first quarter, Alex & Holding paid AMD 1 billion 332 million to the State Budget, of which more than AMD 1.2 billion was customs tax. This means the company imported products. As a matter of fact, out of the paid AMD 1.3 billion, only AMD 5.7 million was profit tax.

City Company, one of the other companies of the businessman, has paid AMD 1 billion 339 million in taxes. Since the taxes paid by the City supermarkets last year were included in the payments of Alex Holding, now it is impossible to say whether the taxes increased or decreased. The same goes for the other companies. Perhaps Alex Textile is an exception. Like last year, it was separate this year as well. It fulfilled a tax obligation of AMD 326 million, which is almost 2.4 times more than the previous year.

Since we talked about one of the well-known businessmen in the list of large taxpayers, let’s also touch upon the taxes paid by other well-known businessmen.

Recently, Ararat Cement Factory, which is the target of the government, paid AMD 374 million to the State Budget in the first quarter, and this has increased by AMD 124 million. Onira Club, another company owned by Gagik Tsarukyan, has paid AMD 1 billion 232 million in taxes, and this is AMD 53 million more than the previous year. The growth is particularly seen in the case of Multi-Leon and Multi Gas. In the first three months of the year, the first company paid more than AMD 259 million, the second — AMD 210 million. Multi-Leon’s taxes have increased by 2.9 times and Multi Gas company’s taxes have risen by 3.6 times.

The owners of Grand Holding have particularly advanced in terms of tax payments. In the first quarter of this year, Grand Tobacco paid more than AMD 12.8 billion compared to the AMD 8 billion last year. In other words, the company’s taxes increased by nearly 60%. Compared to the AMD 2 billion last year, International Masis Tabak paid AMD 3.9 billion to the budget, and this is almost two times more.

Why are these tobacco companies actively paying taxes? This is not clear. Let’s simply state the fact that, based on official data, in the first quarter of this year, Armenia has seen a 10% growth of tobacco production, while cigarette production has not grown.

One can notice a tendency of reduction of taxes paid by telecommunication companies in the list of large taxpayers, and this is rather sharply expressed in the case of certain companies.

Compared to the AMD 1.6 billion of the past year, in the first quarter of this year, MTS Armenia only paid AMD 199 million, meaning 8 times less. Veno Armenia transferred AMD 518 million to the budget, which is 2.5 times less than last year.

Ucom is the leader in terms of paid taxes and has paid more than AMD 1.9 billion, even though the company has paid fewer taxes. In the first quarter of last year, Ucom paid nearly AMD 2.5 billion in taxes.

In the spheres of import and realization of petrol and diesel fuel, unlike CPS Oil Corporation, the paid taxes of which have dropped, Flash Company’s transfers have increased by AMD 1.1 billion. Max Petrol has sharply advanced in the market — compared to AMD 292 million paid last year, this year, the company paid almost AMD 2.6 billion in taxes. Instead, Rosneft Armenia paid only AMD 199 million in taxes, which is less than last year’s taxes by AMD 155 million.

Like last year, Gazprom Armenia is on the top of the list of large taxpayers this year as well, even though the company has even reduced its taxes this year. The negative difference is higher in Transgaz’s case — AMD 1.7 billion compared to AMD 1.9 billion last year.

Another important fact: although the large taxpayers’ payments have increased by at least 19% this year, there has been almost no change in terms of profit tax. With respect to this type of tax, the payments of 1,000 taxpayers have made up AMD 22.9 billion compared to the AMD 22.4 billion of last year.

HAKOB KOCHARYAN