Tuesday, October 29 2019 13:14

ArmInfo. The process of introducing the institution of real owners begins in Armenia. On October 29, RA Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan announced this on  the sidelines of the "Transparency of Owners" forum that opened in  Yerevan.

According to him, the current system of disclosing real owners is  extremely inefficient. In particular, when registering with the  director of a company in the state register, the submission of  additional information about real owners was practically not  required, and mechanisms for their disclosure were not used. After  the "velvet" revolution, 1-2 cases of their disclosure were revealed.  Moreover, as the minister noted, the concept of "identification" can  include both the use of open sources and the data obtained as a  result of operational criminal prosecution. However, when applying  the new institution, not only criminal, but also administrative  matters will be important, as well as the fulfillment of obligations  under international tax agreements. Rustam Badasyan also emphasized  that each investor in the implementation of joint projects wants to  deal with a specific owner of the enterprise. Moreover, the work to  identify the real owners will have to go through several industry  structures - the tax service, financial institutions that need to  know their clients by sight, the state register, international  partners, the media and others. The question, according to the  minister, is that the information should be accessible both to the  general public and to certain state and legal structures. All these  issues will be further explored in work with international partners.  Armenia, as Rustam Badasyan noted, lags behind international trends  in identifying real owners.

He also noted that the first step in this direction has already been  taken. We are talking about enterprises in the mining industry,  however, even here it is necessary to improve the mechanisms for  applying the process of declaring property and income. The country's  legislation, as the minister noted, provides for the disclosure of  personal data in the presence of 10% of shares in a company. This  measure applies to related parties. However, according to Rustam  Badasyan, the volume of shares in this issue is not so fundamental,  the mechanisms of disclosing information sources are much more  important.

Recall that the Armenian parliament at the meeting on October 23 in  the first reading amended the Subsoil Code and the package of related  laws, which, among other regulations, are provided until January 30  2020 to publish the names of all ultimate beneficiaries  (shareholders, members of the Board of Directors and management  structures) of companies involved in the development of deposits.  Publication will be subject to data on the owners, whether it be one  person or a group of related persons.

Recall that the publication of real owners of companies is an  obligation of Armenia to the international coalition "Initiative of  transparency in the extractive industry", which the republic has  become a member of since March 2017. The main goal of the legislative  initiative is to ensure transparency in the field of natural  resources management. The first step has already been taken in this  direction - from January 1 of this year.  The archive fund, which  provides all the information about the bowels of Armenia, has become  available to all interested parties. It should be noted that on the  state balance of mineral reserves at present more than 670 deposits  of solid minerals with confirmed reserves, including 30 metal, are  registered. About 400 of these deposits are exploited, including 23  metal ones. There are 7 copper-molybdenum deposits, 4 copper, 14 gold  and gold-polymetallic deposits, 2 iron ore and 1 aluminum ore in  metallic minerals.