YEREVAN, September 10. / ARKA /. Armenia’s parliament has approved today in the second and final reading a bill, exempting non-residents’ income earned from investing in the Armenian government foreign-currency denominated bonds from income tax.

According to a deputy finance minister Suren Karayan , who presented the bill, the decision is aimed at encouraging investments of non-residents in the Armenian Eurobonds.

"The problem is that under the current legislation the income of non-residents who invest in bonds are subject to a ten percent tax. When this applied to residents of countries with which Armenia does not have an agreement, their income are double taxed," he said.

Karayan said all the countries which begin issuing foreign currency-denominated bonds exempt non-residents from this type of tax to encourage investments.

The Armenian government approved August 8 signing of agreements with Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Bank plc and JPMorgan Securities plc which will act as underwriters of the eurobonds. In May the government approved the first issue of $500 million worth Eurobonds with a maturity period of 10 years. -0-