On 26 June, the final conference of the “Public Policy Monitoring and Improvement” sub-grant project implemented in the scope of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project.
Mr. Karen Zadoyan, CCD Project Manager, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, welcomed the project representatives.
“The project is important because NGOs have many peculiarities in the field of administration and public policy, and we believe these peculiarities should also be taken into consideration when developing those policies that have not been performed in the past. I know that there were a number of discussions with the participation of experts, civil society organisations and as a result a final document will be presented to the Ministry of Finance,” he said.
Ms Anahit Ghazanchyan, representative of the “Development Principles” NGO and “Public Policy Monitoring and Improvement” Project Manager, thanked the participants of the meeting for their presence, noting that according to this, participants in the discussion are convinced of the efficiency of their work.
“We have held round-table discussions, tax issues and administration issues, discussing what issues we have faced and what recommendations we want to present to the government. The essence of the project is that we do not consider “our” and “their” positions. We are the state and our goal is that different citizens of the state, who perform different functions, should be able to speak the same language to agree on important provisions,” she said.
During the conference, the application/standpoint of the issues and recommendations recorded as a result of discussions by NGOs participating in the project, in the field of tax policy development and administration improvement was presented. A memorandum on the establishment of a unified CSO Coalition for the protection of the interests of civil society organizations in the field of tax policy development and administration was presented as well. 20 CSOs were included in this coalition.
The participants of the “Public Policy Monitoring and Improvement” project, the “Development Principles” NGO representing the interests of the civil society organisations highlighted the policy of improving the taxation environment of the CSO community in the Republic of Armenia with a view that the unified body for consolidation and advocacy of the civil society and CSOs are involved in the process of improving the tax environment for CSOs and the effective dialogue of the civil society and public sector expert staff.
Notably, the objective of the project is to develop and improve the evidence based public policy on non-profit organizations in the field of tax policy. As a result of the project implementation, it is planned to create one common body that will consolidate and protect the interests of CSOs in the field of tax policy – a CSO coalition, which will carry out an effective oversight and strategy development for non-profit organizations. The coalition, as a result of the consensus, will develop a long-term strategy in the tax field as well as carry out activities on formulating, developing and finalizing tax policy and concept in non-commercial sector.
