The company belonging to the wife of the former Republican deputy minister has received a privilege from the government

During the government sitting on June  25, the government adopted a decision on granting privileges to Solar Pharm LLC to be exempted from customs duties. The company will import goods that will be used for electricity generation (construction of a solar power plant).

The cost of the goods presented for the privilege is 51.3 million drams. The exemption from customs duties is 4.2 million drams.

“Solar Pharm” was founded in March 2019. It currently has two shareholders. One of the shareholders is Armen Karapetyan, former Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy, and the other is Edita Eduardi Shekoyan, wife of Karen Ghahramanyan, who is the son of Ashot Ghahramanyan, former Deputy Minister of Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources.

Armen Karapetyan held the post of Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investment from 2017-2018. Then, as a result of the optimization of the ministries, he became the Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy. Karapetyan was relieved of his post in October 2019, as he explained, for health reasons. Approximately a month later, he became a 50 percent shareholder in Solar Pharm.

In the declaration of termination of his position, Armen Karapetyan declared an income of more than 110 million drams, of which 95.9 million was presented as a donation in the form of natural products. Karapetyan received about 10 million drams as a salary, and 4 million drams came from the interest received from the loans.

Meanwhile, Karen Ghahramanyan is a member of the Republican Party Council.

In February 2018, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources, however, after the revolution in 2018, he resigned.  Prior to that, Ghahramanyan was the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Energy Infrastructure for 14 years.

Within the framework of the program, Solar Pharm LLC plans to invest a total of about 1 billion 873 million drams for the purchase of goods, and the rest will be spent on the construction of the solar power plant.

Currently there is 1 job available. It is planned to create 5 main և 50 temporary new jobs with an average salary of 100,000 drams within the framework of the investment program.

Ani Avetisyan