Georgia's Parliament Chairman Blames Tax Minister's Departure On 'Infighting'

by Tatiana Smolensky, Tax-News.com, Moscow

17 August 2001

Following the dramatic resignation of the Georgian Tax Revenue Minister, Mikheil Machavariani, reported here on Wednesday, the Chairman of Parliament Zurab Zhvania has spoken publicly, condemning what he called 'cabinet infighting'.

Speaking to the Rustavi-2 Television station, Mr Zhvania described the Tax Minister's resignation over what he considered unrealistic budget expectations as a dangerous signal, and warned that there were clear signs that the country was facing an economic crisis.

Mr Machavariani quit his position over a proposal from the country's Minister of Economics that there be a 100m increase in the budget's revenue side, echoing situations in other post-communist countries where Economics Ministries have advanced unrealistic goals for the Finance and Tax ministries to attempt to implement. The former Tax Minister said at the time that he feared that an attempted implementation of the Economic department's proposals would end in failure, as it had in 1999.

The Parliament Chairman told reporters that he was saddened by his colleague's resignation. 'This gives us a lot of food for thought,' he mused. 'Among my friends, Machavariani is one of the most well-organized and balanced figures...This is a specific situation, and a specific problem within the Government's economic team. It is plagued by endless infighting, which has assumed abnormal proportions. Discussion is fine, but infighting and frustrating each other's efforts is abnormal.'

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