Armenian government approves major tax break for firm linked to Samvel Aleksanyan

The Armenia’n government has approved a customs duty exemption worth 23.8bn drams for a sugar producer linked to businessman Samvel Aleksanyan.

The decision was taken at Thursday’s cabinet meeting as part of a package of non-reported agenda items. The meeting agenda included 75 draft decisions, but only three of them were discussed individually.

The beneficiary, Alex and Holding LLC, imports raw materials to be used in sugar production at its facility in Yerevan. The company was founded in 2018.

According to the government’s justification, the firm plans to invest 31.1bn drams in purchasing raw materials. It currently employs 762 people with an average monthly salary of 400,000 drams. Under the investment program, the workforce is expected to rise to 880 by 2028, with average monthly pay increasing to 430,000 drams.

The customs exemption applies to imported goods valued at 31.1bn drams. The government said the materials are sourced from outside the Eurasian Economic Union, as suppliers within the bloc do not meet the company’s technical requirements.

At its previous meeting, the government granted a separate 109-million-dram exemption to another company also linked to Aleksanyan.