OSCE Office supports courses to help business owners adhere to amended tax law in Armenia

YEREVAN, 24 October 2008 - Helping small- and medium-sized enterprises adapt to recent tax legislation changes is the purpose of a course that starts today at an OSCE-supported anti-corruption centre in Yerevan.

"The course will benefit the entrepreneurs and will help reduce the risk for corruption, thus supporting the government's anti-corruption policy," said Marc Bojanic, Deputy Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

During the course, Tax Service and Finance Ministry officials will explain what the legislation changes mean to small- and medium-sized enterprises. The course is organized in co-operation with the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Centre of Armenia. A guidebook to the tax law, published earlier this month by the OSCE Office, will be used in the course.

Similar courses will be held across Armenia to help business owners adhere to the law. The courses will be held at OSCE-supported regional anti-corruption centres.

Armen Khojoyan, the co-ordinator of the Anti-Corruption Public Reception Centre in Yerevan, said more than 2,000 people had visited the Yerevan centre since it opened last year. He said visitors' complaints and questions had helped the centre address government officials and non-governmental organizations to create improvement.

The OSCE-supported anti-corruption centres in Yerevan, Goris and Martuni provide the public with consultations on matters including civic and labour rights, social and security laws, small and medium entrepreneurship, public health, conscription, driver's rights and consumers' rights.