Imported Alcohol Presented as Local Spirit Says Pashinyan

During today's government meeting regarding the reduction of the state duty for brandy producers from 10 million drams to 50 thousand drams, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the following issue:

“I think that a clear mechanism for the traceability of grapes is more important in terms of brandy quality. The problem lies in the fact that alcohol has been imported from other places and presented as local spirit. This issue is not only a problem for brandy production, but also for agriculture, where vineyards have been replaced with wheat fields, and this is also a consequence of that. Therefore, what is the reason we are not following this mechanism now? When a person says, ‘I have harvested this much grapes,’ there should be evidence of that. There are mechanisms in the world that account for the raw material of grapes, and we can see whether the person has harvested the grapes or not. We had decided that we should go down that path,” he said.

Tigran Khachatryan clarified that they are going through a regulatory pathway. Pashinyan also spoke about tax revenues, stating that if they are not being formed, the policy must be changed. It is worth noting that the head of the State Revenue Committee has classified the project as a tax privilege for brandy producers, which Tigran Khachatryan disagreed with.