Armenia’s State Revenue Committee Chairman Resigns

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Davit Ananyan, the head of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC), unexpectedly resigned on Thursday.

Ananyan gave no reasons for the resignation when he announced it on Facebook.

“In order to end rumors circulating in the media I want to inform that today I tendered my resignation to the prime minister of Armenia,” he wrote.

“I want to thank everyone for effective and production cooperation and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for entrusting this important position to me for more than two years,” he added without elaborating.

Pashinyan did not immediately accept the resignation or make statements on it.

Ananyan, 48, was appointed as head of the national tax and customs services in May 2018 shortly after the “Velvet Revolution” that brought Pashinyan to power. He served as deputy finance minister in Armenia’s previous government. Former Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan had appointed him to that post in 2016.

According to his official biography, Ananyan, 46, worked as a tax inspector in the 1990s and ran a private tax and accounting consultancy from 2006-2016.

Ananyan promised a tougher government crackdown on companies and individuals evading taxes when he took over the SRC. The current government’s tax revenues have risen significantly since then, a fact regularly emphasized by Pashinyan.