YEREVAN, July 31. /ARKA/. Twenty-one commercial banks operating in Armenia were among 1000 largest corporate taxpayers in the first half of 2012 having paid a total of 15.7 billion drams, the State Revenue Committee (SRC) said in a statement posted on its official website. For comparison in the first six months of last year they paid 12.5 billion drams.

According to the statement, 15.5 billion drams were collected by taxation authorities and 131.6 million drams by customs bodies. Overall, the banks accounted for 6 percent of all taxes paid by 1000 largest corporate taxpayers.

The leading banks by size of paid taxes were ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK (about 2.5 billion drams, 14th largest corporate taxpayer), HSBC Bank Armenia (about 1.7 billion drams, 22nd largest taxpayer), Ameriabank (about 1 7 billion drams, 23rd), Bank VTB (Armenia) (1.2 billion drams, 38th ) and Armbusinessbank (more than 1 billion drams, 43rd).

The list of first largest taxpayers also included Ardshininvestbank (about 872.5 million drams, 50th), Unibank (about 869 million drams, 52nd), Araratbank (more than 839.5 million drams, 54th ), Bank Mellat (more than 766.3 million drams, 61st), Inecobank (more than 748.4 million drams, 63rd), Areximbank-Gazprombank Group (about 644 million drams, 71st), Armeconombank (about 511.1 million drams, 91st) and Prometey Bank (more than 484.6 million drams, 93rd).

The 1,000 largest taxpayers paid in the first half of 2012 more than 261.9 billion drams in various taxes, against more than 232.5 billion drams in the first half of 2011. ($1-407.60 drams). -0-