The Yerevan Municipality, in a statement issued today, reports that despite daily inspections to prevent illegal street trade, many city residents continue to set up temporary street stalls to ply their wares and produce.   

“At the moment, we are only authorized by law to draw up administrative violation reports, fine people and demand that the trade be stopped," said Hovik Safaryan, who heads the municipality’s Department of Trade and Services.

Since the municipality cannot totally ban unlawful street trade, due to legal issues, the city authorities are drafting a number of legislative changes.

“When we fine the violators, and they go bankrupt, they can’t pay the fines and our work is inefficient. The new legislation will allow us to seize their goods and return it only after paying,” says Safaryan.

He says that the city has created small new markets in the center of Yerevan where the top rents for space range between 2,000-2,500 drams.

Safaryan says there are 24 authorized markets in Yerevan with about 1,350 vacancies.

Illegal street vendors face fines of 15,000-20,000 drams for selling agricultural products.