"The government is introducing to parliament a draft law, which bans checking the activity of businessmen before January 1, 2004, except for those businessmen who are involved in large-scale smuggling, drugs, and other cases on which criminal proceedings were launched in the prosecutor's office," the Novosti-Georgia agency cites the president as saying.
In Mr. Saakashvili's words, the government guarantees immunity to businessmen, as they "are victims of the system that ruled before that in Georgia."
"We do not touch businessmen, except for the case with the ex-president's relative, who had to spend a few weeks in a pre-trial detention center," said Mr. Saakashvili.
The talk is about Shevardnadze's son-in-law - the president of the Magticom mobile operator, Giya Dzhokhtaberidze, who was detained on accusation of large-scale tax dodging.
The Georgian president noted that the draft new tax code the government is discussing is aimed at reducing the tax burden and simplifying tax administration.
In the president's words, a serious part of small business will be exempted from taxes. The current taxes are planned to be reduced by half. Administration will be improved in the tax system - "improvement of the population's living conditions will depend on tax withdrawal," said Mr. Saakashvili.
Mr. Saakashvili promised: "If a citizen fills in a tax declaration, he won't be checked unless he is involved in criminal activity. We guarantee that we will not pursue businessmen and will welcome their intention to register their property and invest it to the benefit of the Georgian economy. Our task is to attract the maximum possible number of investments."
