Gyumri based GALA TV has circulated a statement alleging that State Revenue Committee Director Gagik Khachatryan is artificially holding up the release of technical equipment from customs that the station had purchased and imported from abroad. GALA says that Khachatryan had frozen the station’s bank account, claiming that the broadcaster owes 822,000 AMD in taxes. “It’s not clear according to which law Khachatryan has seized our property at customs. Even our local custom officials have no adequate answer. They have offered no satisfactory documentation, even after repeated inquiries on our part. This is just the latest example of the illegal actions taken by the agency head,” the GALA statement reads. The statement goes on to say that realizing his actions could not be legally justified, the head of the State Revenue Committee lifted the freeze on GALA’s bank account but left it on the company’s account. GALA states that its technical equipment remains a “hostage” in the hands of Khachatryan. “We are fully aware how the Committee head works his staff in the most undesirable of conditions, keeping them overtime, etc. We sympathize with their plight. As for the Committee’s public affairs division, all we can say is that even those working there have no idea what to concoct in the way of answers even though, in reality, those issuing replies are top-level tax collectors.