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65% OF ARMENIA'S POPULATION LIVE BELOW POVERTY LINE TODAY
arminfo
Wednesday, April 20, 15:56
65% of Armenia's population live below the poverty line, Armenian
MP from ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party, Vice Chairman of the Armenian
Parliamentary Commission for Financial-Credit and Budget Issues,
Artsvik Minasyan, said on Wednesday.
To measure the poverty, the minimal budget of life can be applied,
he said. The structure of this budget is specified in the bill on
amendments to the Law "On the minimal consumer basket and minimal
consumer budget". This bill prepared by the ARFD parliamentarians
has been considered by parliament for already 3.5 years, and its
discussion was regularly postponed.
The bill fixes the structure and the amount of the minimal consumer
basket. Minasyan recalled that the specified law was adopted in 2004.
The structure of the minimal basket was to be fixed in a separate
law, before the adoption of which this function has been laid on the
government for three years (i.e. before 2007). After the relevant
bill had failed to be adopted, ARFD prepared this bill in 2007.
"Any social policy will suffer from halfness without this law, as
there is no starting point to be guided by when elaborating social
measures", said Minasyan.
The parliamentary hearings on the bill brought together three
ministers, which is an unprecedented case in the parliamentary
practice, said Minasyan.
"Actually, the government stated in practice that it is not ready to
keep its pre-election promises. We think that it is reprehensible at
least: one should either refuse these promises or publicly announce
the inability to keep them", he said.
To recall, at present the minimal salary in Armenia fixed by the law
is almost twice as low as the specified threshold - 32,500 AMD.
According to Minasyan, the arguments about insufficiency of budget
funds are groundless, and the ARFD faction pointed out at least 3
sources of their replenishment: improving the taxation of the ore
mining field, which is capable to bring 70 bln AMD to the state budget;
measures for inflation neutralization, which may bring 80 bln AMD;
and "the most obvious resource" is the shadow economy, which makes
up 48-50% in the republic.
From: A. Papazian
arminfo
Wednesday, April 20, 15:56
65% of Armenia's population live below the poverty line, Armenian
MP from ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party, Vice Chairman of the Armenian
Parliamentary Commission for Financial-Credit and Budget Issues,
Artsvik Minasyan, said on Wednesday.
To measure the poverty, the minimal budget of life can be applied,
he said. The structure of this budget is specified in the bill on
amendments to the Law "On the minimal consumer basket and minimal
consumer budget". This bill prepared by the ARFD parliamentarians
has been considered by parliament for already 3.5 years, and its
discussion was regularly postponed.
The bill fixes the structure and the amount of the minimal consumer
basket. Minasyan recalled that the specified law was adopted in 2004.
The structure of the minimal basket was to be fixed in a separate
law, before the adoption of which this function has been laid on the
government for three years (i.e. before 2007). After the relevant
bill had failed to be adopted, ARFD prepared this bill in 2007.
"Any social policy will suffer from halfness without this law, as
there is no starting point to be guided by when elaborating social
measures", said Minasyan.
The parliamentary hearings on the bill brought together three
ministers, which is an unprecedented case in the parliamentary
practice, said Minasyan.
"Actually, the government stated in practice that it is not ready to
keep its pre-election promises. We think that it is reprehensible at
least: one should either refuse these promises or publicly announce
the inability to keep them", he said.
To recall, at present the minimal salary in Armenia fixed by the law
is almost twice as low as the specified threshold - 32,500 AMD.
According to Minasyan, the arguments about insufficiency of budget
funds are groundless, and the ARFD faction pointed out at least 3
sources of their replenishment: improving the taxation of the ore
mining field, which is capable to bring 70 bln AMD to the state budget;
measures for inflation neutralization, which may bring 80 bln AMD;
and "the most obvious resource" is the shadow economy, which makes
up 48-50% in the republic.
From: A. Papazian