A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenian Government press office reports.
According to the Government decision, 1 billion 391 million AMD (1 USD-387 AMD) will be allocated to the regional administrations to co-finance 20 subsidy programs. As noted by Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan, the programs are implemented in 18 communities. "If we implement this allocation, it will already be that the Government has allocated 17 billion 52 million AMD from the budget to regions for subsidy programs," said Gnel Sanosyan.
The Executive made changes to one of the previously adopted decisions, in accordance with the decision of November 24, 2023 of the EEC Council, in order to ensure the import process provided for by the application of the 0% import duty rate of EVs. The decision proposes to ensure the import of 8,000 vehicles using a 0% import duty rate. As the Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan noted, this decision was due to the fact that the quota of 8,000 electric cars was never used up in previous years. "There have been years when even a few dozen cars were imported. This year, there was unprecedented activity by our citizens, and as of October 1, the quota of 7,400 EVs was used up, so it was decided to realize the reserve of 600 units."
Referring to the decision, Nikol Pashinyan noted that the preferential environment for the import of vehicles with an electric motor does not disappear. "Two or three years ago, we made a decision and established a value-added tax exemption for the import of EVs. That is, usually, when importing, including EVs, a citizen or legal entity must pay both value added tax in the amount of 20 percent of the purchase price and customs duty in the amount of 15 percent of the purchase price. We made a decision that we do not charge value added tax for the import of EVs. After the 8,000 quota set by the EAEU format is used up, citizens, when importing a car with an electric motor, again will not pay value added tax, but will pay a customs duty. This is an important nuance, because even after this quota is used up, the preferential conditions for the import of automobiles with an electric motor do not disappear, they do not go to zero," said the Prime Minister.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan noted that Armenia has another serious privilege. "We are one of the few countries that do not impose recycling tax, which is quite a serious incentive."
The Government made changes in the procedure of voluntary certification of teachers: an electronic method of certification will be introduced. The appeal process has also been specified, as well as the subjects the teachers can apply for certification.