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The NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, moderated by Babken Tunyan, debated a number of draft laws in the second reading and endorsed them at the regular sitting on October 18.

The draft law on Market Control proposes to define the object of regulation and the field of activity of the law, the relevant notions, the main principles of market control, the functions of the inspection body, the features and forms of the control. At the same time, it is designed to define the powers of the Government of the Republic of Armenia in the field of market control, as well as the rights and responsibilities of persons and entrepreneurs carrying out supervision.

The key rapporteur, the Head of the Inspection Bodies’ Coordination Bureau of the RA Prime Minister’s Staff Petros Martirosyan informed that after the first reading, technical amendments were made in the draft.

Petros Martirosyan also presented the draft law on Making Amendments and Addendum to the Law on State Control of Food Safety in the second reading, the adoption of which is conditioned by the necessity to regulate the processes of organizing laboratory tests within the framework of border state control at the phase of food import.

According to the bill, it is proposed to carry out the laboratory tests in the laboratories selected by the importing organizations, and in case of disagreement with the test results, the owner of the product, at his own expense, can send the reserve sample, according to the list approved by the Government's decision, to the reference testing laboratory of another state.

It was noted that three editorial amendments were made after the first reading.

The RA Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Armen Simonyan presented the draft law on Making Addenda to the Law on Road Transport and the enclosed package of drafts for debate.

It was noted that the interstate carrier should appoint a person responsible for the organization and safety of transportation (hereinafter referred to as the transportation manager), who can also be the Head of the organization or a sole proprietor.

The transportation manager must have a certificate of professional qualification, except for persons with 10 consecutive years of management experience in cargo transportation organizations. The requirements for professional qualification, the description of the professional qualification certificate and the procedure for issuing the professional qualification certificate are approved by the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

According to the Deputy Minister, after the first reading, the observations presented by the Government were adopted.

The RA Deputy Minister of Economy Ani Ispiryan submitted the draft law on Making Addenda to the Law on Licensing for debate.

After the first reading, one editorial proposal was presented, which was adopted.

The Committee members debated the draft laws on Making Amendments and Addenda to the Tax Code of the Republic of Armenia in the second reading.

According to the key rapporteur, the Deputy Chairman of the RA State Revenue Committee (SRC) Karen Tamazyan, the first draft proposes to repeal the regulations on considering unfulfilled tax obligations unreliable, defined by Article 45.2 of the RA Tax Code. At the same time, the cases of considering the unfulfilled tax obligations as unreliable, defined by the current edition of Article 45.2 of the Code, are envisaged as grounds for termination of the tax obligation. Taking into consideration that the regulations defined by the Code on considering unfulfilled tax obligations as unreliable are recognized as invalid, it is planned to withdraw the regulation on the establishment of the procedure for registration and de-registration of tax obligations considered unreliable by the Government, and the authority to define this procedure is reserved to the tax authority.

The second legislative initiative proposes to establish that insurance agents and insurance brokers cannot be considered turnover tax payers or micro-business entities.

It was noted that Article 263.2.2 of the Code is written down in a new edition, as a result of which turnover tax payers are exempted from fulfilling the obligations set for the tax agent by Article 150.13 of the Code, only for agricultural products and regarding the purchase of secondary raw materials included in the list established by the Government.

It is also defined that the tax authority can also carry out measurements in order to find out the compliance with the documentation requirements of transactions for the purchase of goods.

It was noted that the threshold of 100 million AMD in Article 346 of the Code should be reduced to 24 million AMD, creating an opportunity to apply the established provisions to turnover tax payers as well. At the same time, it is proposed to determine the mentioned threshold not by the data of any month of the tax year, but by the data of any period of the tax year.

After the first reading of the two bills, editorial proposals were presented, which were adopted.