HCAV administrative complaint against Ministry of Finance examined
12:26, May 8, 2015 | News, Own newsOn February 26, 2015, the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor filed an inquiry to the RA Ministry of Finance to provide a solution to the problem of citizen M. G. who consulted the Organization. His vehicle clearance fee totaled 6 million 707 thousand 917 AMD, which does not comply with the fees to be paid under the RA legislation. The inquiry concerned the procedure of estimating the clearance fees, including the tax types and other details, as well as provision of a copy of the customs agencies database as mentioned in Article 6(3) of the RA Law on Calculation and Payment Features of Indirect Taxes among RA and Eurasian Economic Union Member States. The RA Ministry of Finance provided information on all the points of the inquiry, except for one (a copy of the customs agencies database) arguing that “/…/ the summarized list of the fees available at the customs agency database of vehicles moved over the RA customs border is published and submitted to the RA Ministry of Finance specialized customs for vehicle clearance in the relevant special place /…/” On April 10, 2015, the HCA Vanadzor submitted an administrative complaint to the RA Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan asking to consider the inaction of the RA Ministry of Finance unlawful and instruct the latter to provide the Organization with the requested information. In response to the complaint by the Organization, on April 29, 2015, the RA Ministry of Finance Tax and Customs Agencies Appeal Commission decided to examine the administrative complaint and scheduled a session on May 5, 2015 at 4 pm. The Organization was notified of the session by phone. Arayik Zalyan, the Organization representative, attended the administrative proceedings at the due time and found on the spot that parties of 5 other administrative appeals were to take place in the same venue. The representative of the Organization had to wait for an hour and 20 minutes in the Ministry of Finance corridors without any chairs to sit on. At the session, the representative of the Organization presented the administrative complaint, and then a Ministry of Finance official presented the Ministry’s position on the account that they had not avoided providing the information requested, but rather pointed to where the information could be found. Whereas, the RA Law on Freedom of Information reads that if the information mentioned in a written inquiry is not published, the information on the means, place and terms of such publication shall be provided to the applicant within 5 days after receiving the inquiry. According to the same Law, publication shall be considered provision and availability of information to the public in the press and by other mass media or the Internet as well as through any other means provided under legislation. Whereas the RA MF failed to transfer the information requested by the information transfer means mentioned above. Then the Finance Ministry official mentioned that another reason for not providing the information above was its size. Here, a question arises: how did the Ministry post the extensive information above at the RA Ministry of Finance specialized customs for vehicle clearance. The administrative procedure was completed, and the presiding chairman of the proceedings declared that he would later send to the parties a copy of the decree by e-mail.