Pashinian publicly complained last Thursday that officials from his staff were told at an unnamed shop that they will be charged less if they pay in cash. He accused the shopkeepers of tax evasion.
“Find a way to shut down that shop,” he told the head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
It emerged afterwards that Pashinian referred to an electronics store which is part of Armenia’s Redstore chain. The Investigative Committee sealed this and all other Redstore shops in Yerevan a few hours later. They reopened only on Monday evening.
The committee claimed that the shutdowns were part of a tax evasion inquiry into the company launched last year. It declined to say why the punitive measure was not taken at that time.
The Redstore owner, Arman Gyurjinian, issued, meanwhile, a statement denying tax evasion alleged by Pashinian.
“It is a common practice in the electronics sector to set different prices for the same product depending on the payment method, and the [price] difference is due to the commission fees applied by banks in the case of non-cash payments,” said Gyurjinian.
Vahram Mirakian, another entrepreneur who heads the Mantashiants Business Club association, insisted that Pashinian’s order was illegal even if Redstore indeed underreported its sales. Mirakian argued that under Armenian law retailers evading taxes must be fined by the SRC before being forced to suspend their operations.
Opposition figures and other critics of the Armenian government went farther, accusing Pashinian of openly abusing his powers.