On March 23, the Gala TV station in Gyumri circulated news claiming that certain top government departments had been pressuring companies into pulling their ads from the station starting back in February. It appears that 26 companies pulled their ads during the past one month alone. As a result, the station was left with only three advertisers in March. This forced the station to drastically cut their ad rates to 960 AMD per one minute of ad time. Taking advantage of the ad special was the “Nefertiti” flower and wedding banquet firm owned by Arusyak Aleksanyan. The company had only started operating three months earlier. It appears that the Shirak State Revenue Committee’s customs house has also been holding up delivery of certain technical equipment that Gala had ordered from overseas. Seeking an answer to the bottleneck, Gala sent off a letter to Karen Manukyan, head of the Shirak Revenue Committee customs on April 1. Gala has yet to receive any clarification on the matter. Gala sent off another letter on April 6, again noting that all applicable fees and taxes for the equipment had been paid. Gala TV has told Hetq that given the apparent neglect shown by the Shirak Customs, it can only be assumed that artificial obstacles are being fabricated preventing the release of the much needed equipment and that the TV station can also be hit with fines.