On February 1 the regular sitting of the Entrepreneurship council affiliated with NA Speaker was held in the parliament headed by Artur Baghdasaryan. He noted in his speech that the council has done a lot of work during its activities and in 2005 the work mainly should be done in the marzes (regions). NA Speaker considered necessary to hold exit sittings of the council in the marzes, to familiarize the local entrepreneurs with the urgent key problems.

Then Stepan Aslanyan, council coordinator, NA Speaker adviser presented the 2005 activities program of the council, according to which, four plenary sessions will be convened in the National Assembly during the year, a session will be held in one of the marzes of the republic. All marzes of the republic are included in the program.

The participants of the sittings discussed the proposals stipulating amendments to RA laws “On Income Tax” and “On Obligatory Social Payments,” which mainly referred to the elimination of the taxes taken from non-functioning entrepreneurs. It became clear from the discussions that the viewpoints on the amendments are not the same, so the NA Speaker proposed to reduce the fines and not eliminate them at all. According to him and other participants, it’s necessary to facilitate the process of dissolving the organizations. It was decided to prepare an appropriate legislative draft law during one month.

Those present also discussed “The Concept of Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development,” which presented Ashot Ter-Vardanyan, the head of the working group. According to him, the goal of the concept is the shaping of the middle layer, and for reaching it the concept points out ways of the principles: What to do? and How to do? Vardan Bostanjyan, council expert, MPS Tatul Manaseryan, Gagik Avetyan expressed their viewpoints on the concept. According to Vardan Bostanjyan, the financing for the small and medium entrepreneurship development allocated by 2005 budget is little: about 4.5bn drams are necessary. But, as NA Speaker added it is a certain amount of money for the beginning. According to MP Tatul Manaseryan, a step is necessary for the development of the small and medium entrepreneurship – elimination of the monopoly.

In his final speech NA Speaker noted that the concept should be additionally developed discussing the matter with the representatives of the banking system, also adding the world experience of the sphere and the issue of the long-term crediting.

Armen Alaverdyan, Deputy Head of the State Tax Service answered  the questions pertaining to the tax administration.