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On February 20, the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, on the initiative of the deputy of Armenia Faction Tadevos Avetisyan, organized a work discussion on the topic Local duties in the Yerevan community regarding the building permit rates for 2024. The deputies, the representatives of the construction companies, the executive body, Yerevan Municipality, and other concerned organizations attended the discussion.

Opening the discussion, the Deputy Chair of the Committee Babken Tunyan said that although the discussion was organized on Tadevos Avetisyan’s initiative, it is a fact that the issues regarding the sector have been discussed for a long time.

According to Tadevos Avetisyan, the rapid increase in the building permit and, in general, state duties in the field of construction have caused significant and objective complaints among the developers and citizens, because their increase also has an impact on construction costs and sales prices. According to him, it is also necessary to discuss what effect the increase of the duties can have on real estate prices. Tadevos Avetisyan noted that a number of companies addressed the deputies to discuss these and other deep sectoral issues.

The Chairman of the Armenian Association of Builders NGO Gurgen Grigoryan mentioned that the legal acts defining local duties and fees adopted by the Council of Elders of the Yerevan community are of a local nature and refer to the Yerevan community. The representatives of the construction companies stated that a year ago, the bill providing for amendments in the RA Law on Local Duties and Fees was circulated, by which it was proposed to change the existing construction permit fees. After its adoption, the law entered into force on January 1, 2024.

The developers pointed out that the increase in the amount of duties caused problems in the construction sector. Accordingly, the increase of duties and fees will increase the prices of apartments by at least 10-15% in the near future. In order to settle the problem, the representatives of the construction companies had a discussion in Yerevan Municipality, some of their proposals were accepted, but the problem, according to them, was not solved.

According to the developers, as a result of the established duties and fees, it will become increasingly impossible to carry out construction in the outskirts of the city. The developers stated that it became clear from their conducted studies that there are no such high duties and fees in any post-Soviet country.

The Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Levon Hovhannisyan did not agree with these viewpoints, as well as with the calculations presented by the developers, who informed about the discussion that took place in the municipality and the adopted amendments. It is planned to continue the discussions in the near future. Levon Hovhannisyan noted that the municipality has absolutely no intention of hindering the construction activities in the capital.

Summarizing the discussion, the Deputy Chair of the Committee Babken Tunyan expressed his willingness to continue the discussions with the concerned organizations. If necessary, the issue of legislative amendments will also be discussed.