Khosrov Harutyunyan: By providing tax privileges to the Armenian Apostolic Church the state must compensate the gap of the community budget

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 26, ARMENPRESS:

By providing tax privileges to the Armenian Apostolic Church the state must compensate the gap of the community budget, member of the Public Council Khosrov Harutyunyan said speaking to Armenpress.

"The issue is not in giving or not giving such privileges to the church. The thing is that the National Assembly does not have right to reduce the budget incomes of local self-governmental bodies. The NA cannot establish by law privileges of property tax and land tax without compensating equal sums of these privileges – from state budget to community budget," Harutyunyan said.

Chairman of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan has expressed concern over the issue, pointing out that certain part of the establishments are under subordination of the communities and may reduce the entries of the community budget.

The Armenian Apostolic Church has submitted a list of 286 institutions that must get use of the privileges but the list is not complete and may be filled.