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Armenia simplifies registration procedures
Artur Yernjakyan, ArmInfo, 26.10.10
2010-10-27 15:16:00
Interview with Armen Gevorgyan, the Head of the Armenian State
Register of Legal Entities
In 2009, despite the global crisis, Armenia went seven ranks up in the
Ease of Doing Business Index even though it is still behind its
neighbors, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the World Bank's Doing Business
2010 report, Armenia is 43rd among 183 countries. As compared with
2008, the country has substantially simplified its enterprise
registration, international trade and construction licensing
procedures.
What reforms are you planning for the near future? Will you simplify
the legal entity registration procedures?
We have worked on the program of reforms for over a year. In
accordance with the government's decision, the "one window" principle
should be introduced. It is very convenient, as the citizens can apply
to one registering body in the person of Armenian State Register of
Legal Entities. At the moment people apply to the State Register to
receive a firm name, and for registration of legal entities, and they
apply to tax bodies to receive a tax code. In the future the
above-mentioned functions will be carried out by the State Register.
Various samples of charters are worked out and placed at the Agency's
website to simplify the registration procedure. Those wishing to open
an organization can use these samples of charters.
We are also planning to introduce an e-registration procedure for the
Armenian citizens having an e-signature. At present specialists are
developing necessary software. The pilot program will be started in
Mar-Apr 2011. The `one window' system will be launched even earlier.
In the future we are planning to make our database fully electronic.
Will the payments also be electronic?
Of course, they will. The citizens will be able to pay their state
dues in electronic way. The computer program will check the
authenticity of the payment. It will be also possible to receive
information about organizations included in the Agency's database.
Are you going to increase the state duty for registration or provision
of information as they usually do during reforms?
As far as I know, the Government is planning no such changes in the
law on state duty. In the countries whose economies are comparable to
ours people pay much more than we do. For the moment we pay 5,000 AMD
for the registration of a company's name and 12,000 AMD for the
registration of the company itself. In the future we are going to
unify these two fees into one 17,000 AMD duty. For non-profit
organizations the duty is 10,000 AMD.
What compulsory data do you require when registering legal entities?
According to the law, we require the following information: authorized
capital, legal address, registration number, the number of founders.
For example, phone numbers, physical address, type of activity are not
obligatory information.
Do you have minimum authorized capital requirements?
The minimum requirement to the authorized capital was removed to
simplify registration procedures in February 2009. So, now one can
open an organization with only 1 AMD authorized capital. Formerly, the
minimum authorized capital requirement was 50,000 AMD. The requirement
to provide the document affirming the authorized capital payment is
also removed.
How many days does it take to register a company?
Fives working days. In the future we are planning to reduce this period.
As far as I know, you charge 3,000 AMD for information about companies
registered in your database. So, it turns out that you earn money not
only by registering entities but also by selling information about
them. Why don't you place all of your data on a web-site for free?
The law says that certain information can be provide free of charge
(the name of an organization, the names of its founders, its
registration number and date). You can find this information on our
web-site for free. But in order to obtain more detailed information
one should pay a state duty.
Where do you send the collected money? Do you have an extra-budgetary fund?
All of the money is transferred to the national budget of Armenia. We
have no extra-budgetary fund yet.
As far as I know sometimes the information you provide for money is
not correct and may contain wrong phone numbers, names. Is this true?
This is a very painful question. We just record the information we
get. We have no authority to verify it. The law says that it is the
applicant who is responsible for the accuracy of his information. So,
in some cases our data proves to be outdated or incorrect.
When a company is reorganized or changes it authorized capital or
board, isn't it obliged to get re-registered?
Some information is subject to re-registration, for example, changes
in the authorized capital. But we cannot force companies to get
re-registered. We can't just say: `You know what? We have heard you
have changed your authorized capital. So, you must get re-registered.'
We have no such authority.
Your web-site has not been working for already three weeks. What is
the problem and when will it be fixed?
Voltage fluctuations have put our software out of order. This is a
merely technical problem. We have already restored the program and
hope that the site will soon be restarted.
P.S. As of 1 October 2010, the Agency registered 62300 commercial
organizations and 82100 individual entrepreneurs. The number of
registered legal entities does not indicate the business activity in
the country, because some of them operate only on the paper and are
not liquidated. A conclusion about the business activity may
conditionally be drawn from the tax revenues of the budget. For
instance, in 2008 the tax revenues of the budget totaled 182,4 mln
AMD. Over the crisis year 2009 this amount declined to 168,2 mln, and
over Jan-Sep 2010 the tax revenues made up 137,6 mln AMD.
From: A. Papazian
Artur Yernjakyan, ArmInfo, 26.10.10
2010-10-27 15:16:00
Interview with Armen Gevorgyan, the Head of the Armenian State
Register of Legal Entities
In 2009, despite the global crisis, Armenia went seven ranks up in the
Ease of Doing Business Index even though it is still behind its
neighbors, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the World Bank's Doing Business
2010 report, Armenia is 43rd among 183 countries. As compared with
2008, the country has substantially simplified its enterprise
registration, international trade and construction licensing
procedures.
What reforms are you planning for the near future? Will you simplify
the legal entity registration procedures?
We have worked on the program of reforms for over a year. In
accordance with the government's decision, the "one window" principle
should be introduced. It is very convenient, as the citizens can apply
to one registering body in the person of Armenian State Register of
Legal Entities. At the moment people apply to the State Register to
receive a firm name, and for registration of legal entities, and they
apply to tax bodies to receive a tax code. In the future the
above-mentioned functions will be carried out by the State Register.
Various samples of charters are worked out and placed at the Agency's
website to simplify the registration procedure. Those wishing to open
an organization can use these samples of charters.
We are also planning to introduce an e-registration procedure for the
Armenian citizens having an e-signature. At present specialists are
developing necessary software. The pilot program will be started in
Mar-Apr 2011. The `one window' system will be launched even earlier.
In the future we are planning to make our database fully electronic.
Will the payments also be electronic?
Of course, they will. The citizens will be able to pay their state
dues in electronic way. The computer program will check the
authenticity of the payment. It will be also possible to receive
information about organizations included in the Agency's database.
Are you going to increase the state duty for registration or provision
of information as they usually do during reforms?
As far as I know, the Government is planning no such changes in the
law on state duty. In the countries whose economies are comparable to
ours people pay much more than we do. For the moment we pay 5,000 AMD
for the registration of a company's name and 12,000 AMD for the
registration of the company itself. In the future we are going to
unify these two fees into one 17,000 AMD duty. For non-profit
organizations the duty is 10,000 AMD.
What compulsory data do you require when registering legal entities?
According to the law, we require the following information: authorized
capital, legal address, registration number, the number of founders.
For example, phone numbers, physical address, type of activity are not
obligatory information.
Do you have minimum authorized capital requirements?
The minimum requirement to the authorized capital was removed to
simplify registration procedures in February 2009. So, now one can
open an organization with only 1 AMD authorized capital. Formerly, the
minimum authorized capital requirement was 50,000 AMD. The requirement
to provide the document affirming the authorized capital payment is
also removed.
How many days does it take to register a company?
Fives working days. In the future we are planning to reduce this period.
As far as I know, you charge 3,000 AMD for information about companies
registered in your database. So, it turns out that you earn money not
only by registering entities but also by selling information about
them. Why don't you place all of your data on a web-site for free?
The law says that certain information can be provide free of charge
(the name of an organization, the names of its founders, its
registration number and date). You can find this information on our
web-site for free. But in order to obtain more detailed information
one should pay a state duty.
Where do you send the collected money? Do you have an extra-budgetary fund?
All of the money is transferred to the national budget of Armenia. We
have no extra-budgetary fund yet.
As far as I know sometimes the information you provide for money is
not correct and may contain wrong phone numbers, names. Is this true?
This is a very painful question. We just record the information we
get. We have no authority to verify it. The law says that it is the
applicant who is responsible for the accuracy of his information. So,
in some cases our data proves to be outdated or incorrect.
When a company is reorganized or changes it authorized capital or
board, isn't it obliged to get re-registered?
Some information is subject to re-registration, for example, changes
in the authorized capital. But we cannot force companies to get
re-registered. We can't just say: `You know what? We have heard you
have changed your authorized capital. So, you must get re-registered.'
We have no such authority.
Your web-site has not been working for already three weeks. What is
the problem and when will it be fixed?
Voltage fluctuations have put our software out of order. This is a
merely technical problem. We have already restored the program and
hope that the site will soon be restarted.
P.S. As of 1 October 2010, the Agency registered 62300 commercial
organizations and 82100 individual entrepreneurs. The number of
registered legal entities does not indicate the business activity in
the country, because some of them operate only on the paper and are
not liquidated. A conclusion about the business activity may
conditionally be drawn from the tax revenues of the budget. For
instance, in 2008 the tax revenues of the budget totaled 182,4 mln
AMD. Over the crisis year 2009 this amount declined to 168,2 mln, and
over Jan-Sep 2010 the tax revenues made up 137,6 mln AMD.
From: A. Papazian