The RA Ministry of Justice initiated addendum and amendments to the Law on w “On State Registration of Legal Entities, State Registration of Separated Divisions of Legal Entities, Institutions and Private Entrepreneurs”. According to the draft, commercial organizations with state or community participation, 100 percent of whose shares or bonds are directly owned by the state or community, as well as non-commercial state or community organizations, which were founded by the Republic of Armenia or the community, are exempted from the legislative duty to present the declaration on the beneficial owner.
We find that the discussed change is not valid, it creates privileged conditions for certain types of legal entities, completely contradicts the essence and principles of the real beneficiary, and can create dangerous precedents, weakening the anti-corruption effect of this institution and trivializing its importance.
We call upon the author of the draft, the RA Ministry of Justice, to withdraw this draft, initiate a public discussion with interested and specialized structures, and jointly discuss the issue of the feasibility of this draft.
The opinion of the ALA in full on the draft (in Armenian language) is presented here.