Controversy around income declaration system produced opposite effect, says minister

Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan said the controversy around the universal income declaration system has actually produced the opposite effect and more people have filed the declaration. 

He said that over 4000 people filed the declaration in one month, and nearly each of them received 100,000 drams in returns. For comparison, he said that just over 3500 people filed declarations last year. He said that the controversy actually raised awareness among the public about the benefits. 

“The negative controversy around the income declaration has produced the opposite effect,” he said at a press conference. 

Papoyan said the declaration is a positive instrument for citizens who have nothing to hide.

“We hadn’t succeeded in making everyone aware that if you don’t have anything to hide then filing a declaration is simply beneficial for you,” Papoyan said.

Papoyan emphasized that the declaration system enables to return over 70 billion drams to citizens, whereas the system has been misrepresented as a taxation method.