Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC) wants to have access to individual and corporate bank accounts without a court order, arguing that bank account holders often refuse to provide such information to tax authorities.

The SRC says it needs such information to carry out its monitoring mandate and that it will safeguard such details as prescribed by Armenian law.

According to current law, banks can only provide such information to the SRC with a court order and that bank account details can be published only with the given client's written or oral permission given in court.

Economist Karlen Khachatryan told Hetq that the rights of businesspeople will be violated if the SRC’s draft is approved.

“This will mean that the executive branch will obtain this data without the judiciary’s permission. Only the courts have the right to decide whether the secret bank data of account holders is necessary for the SRC or not, and whether the SRC has proper grounds to get this data," says Khachatryan.

The draft was submitted for public discussion on July 6 and will remain open for comment until July 21 on the e-draft.am website. As of July 11, there are no votes in favor of the draft.