Only 12 Workers Instead of 300: The Number of Employees in Demolished Cafes, Kubatyan

The head of the Information Department of the Yerevan City Hall, Hovsep Kubatyan, made a post on his Facebook page regarding the demolition of cafes in the area adjacent to the Opera, stating:

"Instead of 300, only 12 people are working."

Today, the entrepreneurs operating in the Opera area claimed that if the cafes are demolished, about 300 jobs would be lost and that many people would be left unemployed. It turns out that the entrepreneurs are either trying to mislead the public for their own benefit or they have hundreds of unregistered employees.

On the website of the "Military Personnel Insurance" fund, at 1000plus.am, one can easily find the mandatory payments made by entrepreneurs if they know the VAT number of the entrepreneur. I would like to remind you that each entrepreneur pays 1000 AMD for each employee. The VAT number of entrepreneurs can also be easily found on the RA State Revenue Committee's website if you know the entrepreneur's name.

Thus, performing a few simple operations I discovered that:

• The company "AniVneri Vra" occupies an area of 565 square meters in the Opera area and had 1 employee as of January 31, 2019. The situation was the same last year. During the peak season in July, August, and September, the number of employees was still one.
• The company "Atlantis Garden" occupies an area of 1536 square meters and had 10 employees as of January 31, 2019. Last year, during the peak café season in July, August, and September, the number of employees was 28.
• The company "Hamanvag," which occupies an area of 756 square meters, had 1 employee as of January 31, 2019. Last year, during the café season's peak months of July, August, and September, the number of employees was two.