Authorities have to tackle pricing problem in Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net - The problem of pricing persists in Armenia due its small territory and the high level of monopolization. People are embarrassed by unexpected increased in prices but are helpless to do anything to prevent it.

The State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition seems incapable to address the issue.

According to Chairman of the Union of Local Producers Vazgen Safaryan the country’s authorities should seriously tackle the problem and create legislative basis defining price limits, as well as favorable conditions to prevent emigration from the country.

Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that a meeting was held to study in detail the indexes of Armenia’s business environment evaluation that were published in the World Bank Doing Business 2011 report.

The country’s worst index in the report is related to tax and customs administration, Sargsyan said.

“The RA State Revenue Committee has developed certain actions to improve the business environment. It refers to cut in the number of reports, time that businessmen spend for communication with tax bodies, as well as periodicity of tax payments,” he said, adding that the reforms should also refer to penalties and conditions for inspections.

The Armenian Prime Minister noted that during another meeting due in a week all institutions should submit their plans of actions, so that the country records a considerable progress in all indices until April 1, 2011.

“Some decisions will be enforced from January 1. Specifically, enterprises will be submitting reports electronically, what will provide with the opportunity to considerably reduce the time spent for administration,” PM Sargsyan said.

He noted that the task is also of political importance, as importance was attached to the indices of Doing Business in the election campaign of President Serzh Sargsyan. “We should secure qualitative improvements in the field within a year,” he concluded.