EcoLur
The Government of the Republic of Armenia does not want to reveal the real owners in the field of energy, and the corresponding bill was endorsed by the National Assembly committee. Draft law "On Making Amendments and Supplements to Law on Energy" authored by MPs Artak Manukyan and Babken Tunyan of RA National Assembly, was debated at the sitting of NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs held on January 15, 2020.
The primary goal of the law is to ensure transparency in the energy sector. The proposed amendments to a number of articles of the law provide for new regulations regarding the relationship between the introduction of the requirement for disclosure of real owners and the application of liability measures in case of non-disclosure. The bill was drafted back in September of last year, and it was proposed that the law take effect on November 1, 2019.
However, in November 2019, the discussion of the bill was postponed for a two-month period at a sitting of the Standing Committee. The reason was the position of the Armenian government. The government made the following remark on the bill: “The Government of the Republic of Armenia intends to reveal the real owners in a systematic approach, namely: identifying issues through roadmaps, implementing legislative changes and gradually defining target areas. We consider that the sectorial solutions are inadmissible at this time, therefore, we propose to refrain from discussing the submitted draft at this stage and, if necessary, addressing the draft provisions within the framework of legislative initiatives to be submitted by the Government of the Republic of Armenia."
At the sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs held January 15, the position of the Government was approved by the Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia Hakob Vardanyan. The latter noted that the government at the moment does not consider it appropriate to make such a change in a particular area. However, the committee issued a favorable conclusion to the draft.
January 17, 2020 at 17:22