Yerevan /Mediamax/. IT companies of Armenia expect “more drastic steps” from the government.

As the Executive Director of the Union of IT Enterprises (UITE) Karen Vardanyan stated in an interview to Mediamax, the crisis prevention measures of the government, related, in particular, to 3 years’ delay of VAT payment for companies, which import equipment at the sum of 300mln AMD, will have a positive effect on attracting investments. However, according to Vardanyan, the government should “go further” and not collect VAT from IT companies on the border at all.

Previously, many IT companies had problems, related with this very collection of VAT on the border. “Because of this, many large companies, for instance, Intel, refused to make serious investments in Armenia”, Karen Vardanyan stated. He expressed hope that the decisions of the government will allow resuming talks with large foreign investors.

Heads of a number of other IT companies have also stated in an interview to Mediamax the necessity to abolish VAT payment on the border. Director of “Nork” information-research center Hayk Chobanyan believes that the decision of the government will be of help only to large enterprises, since 300mln AMD (about $1mln) is quite a large sum. And according to the Director of “Sourcio” Company Hovhannes Avoyan, one should fix but not collect VAT at any volume of equipment import.

Chief Executive Officer of “Synopsys Armenia” Hovik Musaelyan noted in an interview to Mediamax that if the equipment is imported for the company’s own needs, and not for sale, it should be fully exempted from VAT payment.

Among the factors, which hinder IT sector development, representative of the sector singled out the work of the customs. As the Executive Director of UITE Karen Vardanyan stated, concerning import there is the problem of applying market prices mechanism in the sphere of IT, which hinders companies being more flexible and following the requirements of the global market. In the sphere of export, IT companies, besides problems with reexport, also face difficulties concerning defining “high technologies” notion.

At present, UITE discusses a number of changes to present those to the consideration of the government. Karen Vardanyan noted that the changes will assist mitigation of customs administration, which, in its turn, will increase the level of its transparency.