Yerevan/Mediamax/. Armenian President Serzh Sargsian met in Yerevan today with leaders of 12 leading companies in the mining sphere, suggesting that they participate in elaboration of the new legislation on taxation of the sector.

Mediamax reports that in a conversation with the journalists, Armenian President said that he wanted to personally assure the heads of companies that the tax and customs reforms in the sphere of mining industry, taken up by the state, will significantly facilitate their activity.

Head of Armenian State Revenues Committee Gagik Khachatryan informed that as compared to 2009, in 2010, the turnover of the mining industry increased by AMD 85bln, and tax proceeds increased from AMD 7.9bln, reaching AMD 16.9bln.

According to him, due to the new legislation on mining industry taxation, the taxation volumes of the sphere are expected to increase 2-2.5 times.

According to the Chairman of “Vallex Group” Valeri Mezhlumyan, the Group of Companies experiences the positive changes in tax and customs spheres. “Since 1997, we had been having problems with delay in return of excessive payments on value added tax, and this issue was solved only over the past year”, the entrepreneur said.

Director of Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Plant Maxim Hakobyan informed that during the meeting they discussed prospects of building a copper processing plant in Armenia. “We decided to postpone this issue for a few years, since the volumes of the copper, extracted in the republic, are not sufficient yet”, Maxim Hakobyan said.