On January 18, the press conference of the RA Deputy Minister of Finance Armen Hayrapetyan was held at the international agency “Sputnik Armenia”. Armen Hayrapetyan presented the program of measures on alienation of state reserves of the “State Treasury of Precious Metals and Precious Stones” Agency, noting that on January 11 the RA Government adopted the Draft Decision “On Approving the Program of Measures on Alienation of State Reserves of Precious Metals and Precious Stones of the “State Treasury of Precious Metals and Precious Stones” Agency of the Staff of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Armenia for 2018-2020” presented by the RA Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan.
According to the Deputy Minister, in recent years state reserves have been replenished with precious metals, precious stones and items made from them, confiscated only in the manner prescribed by law. After 1996, their realization has not been carried out in accordance with the procedures established by the Government of the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which a sufficient number of goods was accumulated, which lose their relevance over time.
“There are goods of two groups in the treasury. The first group consists of the goods of cultural and historical value that are not assessed, sold and exhibited in museums, for example, old coins, belts, utensils, etc. The goods of the second group are estimated and can be put up for sale. Their total cost is about AMD 1.9 billion. The rest of the goods for AMD 1.5 billion lose their relevance over time, as well as the commercial appearance and value. Accordingly, the storage of such goods is inefficient and inappropriate”, - stressed Armen Hayrapetyan.
Armen Ayrapetyan added that last year an attempt was made to sell the pearls from the store, but there were no buyers, which was the reason for the launching of this process, so that during the time these goods also did not lose their market value. “We have set a deadline for the realization of these items - four years; the bottom line is to sell storage items at a high price so that we achieve the highest possible result for the storage. We also set a limit, below which there can be no price”, - said the Deputy Minister and added that the proceeds will be used to replenish the storage with more liquid items.
Armen Hayrapetyan noted that in the near future, after the adoption of the decision, the Ministry of Finance will announce a tender for the auction and the one with the most competitive offer will be the auction organizer. He assured that the decision on the alienation of precious stones and metals was not taken hastily, stressing that this problem began to be dealt with as far back as half of 2016. The state treasury adopted an approach that the state reserves should only be composed of bullions corresponding to the state standard of high liquidity and items of historical and cultural value made of precious metals and precious stones.