Friday, December 27 2019 14:25

ArmInfo.  On December 27, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the center for foreign economic activity under construction in Gyumri. As follows from the video posted by Nikol Pashinyan on his Facebook page, the  head of the Armenian government was accompanied by the Minister of  Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Suren Papikyan, heads  of the State Revenue Committee, and other officials.

The Prime Minister walked around the area of the center under  construction, got acquainted with the working conditions of the  staff. Representatives of the SRC promised to carry out the necessary  construction work in the winter, so that there were no stops. At a  government meeting on December 12, Nikol Pashinyan announced that the  center of foreign economic activity in Gyumri would cost three times  more than originally planned. As the prime minister explained then,  it was previously assumed that Gyumri would have customs point for  cars. But, since it became obvious that from the new 2020, that is,  from the moment the EAEU customs regulations entered into force, the  flow of car imports into the republic will cease, a decision was made  to build a foreign economic activity center where the business will  be served here on a one-stop basis. Accordingly, the construction  budget increased from the previous 2.2 billion drams (181 million  drams were allocated at the first stage of construction of the SRC  vehicles customs point, and 966 million drams at the second stage) by  another 4 billion drams.

However, the chief financier of Armenia Atom Janjughazyan expressed  his disagreement to allocate additional funds. "It turns out that the  project, estimated at the beginning at 2.2 billion drams, today, to  obtain the same result, funds in the amount of 6.2 billion drams are  required," he said. The chief financier proposed to be guided by the  previous regulations, since "they are more reasonable." "We can't  make a commitment without knowing what it will result in," he said.  At the same time, he called for determining the possible result that  SRC would provide, and which would justify such expenses.

The head of the SRC, David Ananyan, expressed his complete  disagreement with the head of the Ministry of Finance. He assured  that the estimate will no longer be exceeded and the department will  be able to meet the requested 6.2 billion drams. "If the construction  is not continued, we will have an inferior structure, which in the  future may be unsuitable during work," he declared. To date, as  Ananyan pointed out, 2 billion 547 million drams have already been  allocated for work and another 3.6 billion drams are required, by the  current decision - 2 billion 35 million drams. According to him, it  is desirable to allocate funds now, since more than half of the  factual work has already been carried out.

Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan no longer agreed with this. As the  minister pointed out, a request for a new economy center was supposed  to come from business, but it wasn't. Therefore, according to  Janjughazyan, the tax authority has made its own decision. At the  same time, he objected to the logic that since in fact half of the  work has already been carried out, more money is needed. In the  meantime, there was no legal basis for carrying out these works, he  stressed.

SRC Chairman David Ananyan answered him from his seat, but the Prime  Minister urged him not to resent.  "So let's make legal appeals with  illegal actions, let's have a half-hour discussion about violence,  but allow ourselves illegal actions," Atom Janjughazyan said. The  Prime Minister did not like the remark of the Minister of Finance.  "There are ministries that cannot be budged even by force. We have  ministries in which there are plenty of idlers who wait only for work  to finish to go home," he said, adding jokingly:  "And you don't have  to be more Catholic than the Pope, in this case I am the Pope. "

Earlier, ArmInfo reported that the Moscow Region company will design  the construction of the Foreign Economic Activities Center in Gyumri,  and the monitoring of the work will be carried out by Shin Industry  CJSC. As David Ananyan assured, procurement of services from one  person will not affect the quality and terms of the program.  Meanwhile, rumors are circulating in the media that the company  "Merdzmoskovyan" ("Moscow Region") belongs to the father of the  member of the Council of Elders of Gyumri Artak Adamyan from the  "Balasanyan" faction (the faction is headed by mayor of the city  Samvel Balasanyan). ArmInfo managed to find information on the  presence of Merdzmoskovyan OJSC on the website of the electronic  register of legal entities, where only the date of its establishment  is indicated - 04/26/1995.