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Are There Billionaires in Armenia?
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/society25388.html
Published: 15:36:58 - 09/03/2012
Forbes published the list of billionaires of 58 countries. There is no
representative of Armenia.
Are there billionaires in Armenia? It is very difficult to answer this
question because no one knows anything about the wealth of the
Armenian tycoons. Robert Kocharyan is rumored to have 4 billion. There
has never been any word on other `billionaires'. The size of Armenia
does not allow for such wealth.
Declarations of income and an open scoring system allows the state to
identify the richest people in the country and accordingly to
calculate their taxes. In addition, a specific amount of possessions
also requires justification, such as how the wealth was acquired and
from where.
There are media tycoons, owners of computer companies, as well as
owners of mines and enterprises of primary processing of raw
materials, as well as owners of trade nets. It is not clear how people
become rich in Armenia.
In Russia where control over material is not transparent enough the
oligarchs are not afraid of declaring their wealth. At least, they do
not deny reports on their income published by international ratings.
In Armenia, rich people are ashamed of their wealth. Even though they
show off their wealth by their life style, sometimes with a very bad
taste, no rich officer or businessman or bureaucrat has ever disclosed
how much money they have.
It has several causes. First, most people avoid taxes, second, the
rating assumes that someone is ahead while others lag behind, and in
Armenia, no one wants anyone to be richer than him. Third, the Soviet
tradition also matters where being rich was a public disgrace.
The rankings of rich people in Armenia, apparently, are disliked by
everyone, even the government. Otherwise, it would have initiated the
process of declaration of income a long time ago, without which the
attempts `to bring major business into taxation' seem to be a fiction.
No one wants to compare their income. Everyone pays taxes as much as
it was defined in section quotas.
The Arab sheiks and eastern rulers do not compare their wealth either.
They do not have to compete with one another. Competition in general
is not inherent in the East. In this sense, Armenia is an oriental
country where the elite is not accountable to people.
From: Baghdasarian
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/society25388.html
Published: 15:36:58 - 09/03/2012
Forbes published the list of billionaires of 58 countries. There is no
representative of Armenia.
Are there billionaires in Armenia? It is very difficult to answer this
question because no one knows anything about the wealth of the
Armenian tycoons. Robert Kocharyan is rumored to have 4 billion. There
has never been any word on other `billionaires'. The size of Armenia
does not allow for such wealth.
Declarations of income and an open scoring system allows the state to
identify the richest people in the country and accordingly to
calculate their taxes. In addition, a specific amount of possessions
also requires justification, such as how the wealth was acquired and
from where.
There are media tycoons, owners of computer companies, as well as
owners of mines and enterprises of primary processing of raw
materials, as well as owners of trade nets. It is not clear how people
become rich in Armenia.
In Russia where control over material is not transparent enough the
oligarchs are not afraid of declaring their wealth. At least, they do
not deny reports on their income published by international ratings.
In Armenia, rich people are ashamed of their wealth. Even though they
show off their wealth by their life style, sometimes with a very bad
taste, no rich officer or businessman or bureaucrat has ever disclosed
how much money they have.
It has several causes. First, most people avoid taxes, second, the
rating assumes that someone is ahead while others lag behind, and in
Armenia, no one wants anyone to be richer than him. Third, the Soviet
tradition also matters where being rich was a public disgrace.
The rankings of rich people in Armenia, apparently, are disliked by
everyone, even the government. Otherwise, it would have initiated the
process of declaration of income a long time ago, without which the
attempts `to bring major business into taxation' seem to be a fiction.
No one wants to compare their income. Everyone pays taxes as much as
it was defined in section quotas.
The Arab sheiks and eastern rulers do not compare their wealth either.
They do not have to compete with one another. Competition in general
is not inherent in the East. In this sense, Armenia is an oriental
country where the elite is not accountable to people.
From: Baghdasarian