EcoLur
The share of mining in GDP amounts to 3.2% in Armenia (according to the data of RA Statistics Committee for 2017). With this share, mining and quarrying sector takes the 12th line out of 20 sectors presented in the GDP. In 2017, the taxes and payments made by metal mining companies to the state budget made up 81.7 billion AMD in 2017. The largest taxpayer in 2017 was “Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine” CJSC with 32,583.3 million tax payments. In the second place was “GeoProMining” LLC with 14,314.7 AMD tax payments followed by “Teghout” CJSC with 14,113.8 million AMD payments.
In 2017, the mining companies paid fines in the amount of 1 billion 45 million AMD. In 2017, the employment in the mining and quarrying sector made up 9,200 people, which made up 6.9% of the entire industry employment. You can learn about different data on the metal mining sector in Armenia in the First National EITI Report of Armenia for 2016-2017.
“How much funds have been allocated in terms of social responsibility or how much money has been paid to the communities in the form of charity or property tax payments.
Now citizens have an opportunity to follow the expediency of the expenditure of these funds. S/he can inform us about non-expedient use of these funds or make proposals in this regard to us, the representatives of the Civil Society Constituency, EITI MSG Armenia. We are looking for the feedback from the residents to make their voice heard in the EITI process,’ said Harutyun Movsisyan, a member of the Civil Society Constituency, EITI MSG Armenia, YSU Associate Professor.
“The EITI process is important for us, as the mining sector has been closed one and the society didn’t have access to the financial data of mining companies. The disclosure of this data is one of the requirements of the EITI standard. One of the most important indicators in the report is that we know now how much money mining companies have paid as a particular tax, how much royalty or profit tax has been paid. If we see separately paid profit tax or royalties, we can estimate and see how much the company has mined, make judgment about the quality of processing,” Harutyun Movsisyan said.
The First National EITI Report of Armenia for 2016-2017 is available on www.eiti.am.
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
February 27, 2019 at 15:15