Poor Armenians forced to pay for failures of gov’t

By Azernews

By Gunay Hasanova

Although dozens of millionaires live in the poor Armenia, the state forces the poor population to pay thousands of drams for its failures.

Armenian National Congress (ANC) parliamentary faction secretary Aram Manukyan made the remark during the parliamentary discussions on the bill on payments to the insurance fund for servicemen.

“Approximately $1-$1.5 billion “black cash” is taken out of Armenia in a year, according to various estimates. There are 5 billionaires and 60 millionaires, who are “legally” sitting in the Parliamentary hall, though, in a country like Armenia it is not possible to become rich so fast”, said Manukyan.

"Can’t the commander in chief gather them and say:" The situation is bad - and you should give something to solve the issue ? Would it be hard for them? Yes, it would because it is hard for them to spend money from their own budget”, he added.

The essence of the bill is that all those who suffered while serving in the Armed Forces of Armenia, fulfilling the will of the aggressive authorities and occupying lands of the neighboring country-Azerbaijan, will receive a small compensation for the crippled health and life. 

To solve the social problems of the families of killed or disabled soldiers, every working citizen will be charged in the amount of 1,000 AMD each month for 20 years, the bill suggests.

These finances, according to the bill, will be "transferred" to a special fund. The payments will be made staring January 28, 2017, News.am reported.

The bill was adopted with eight votes in favor and two against (leader of Free Democrats Party Khachatur Kokobelyan and Heritage faction member Tevan Poghosyan), one abstaining (Leader of Bright Armenia Party Edmon Marukyan).