YEREVAN. – A scandal broke out at the Third Annual International Pension Conference, which is held Friday in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan.
About three dozen members of the “I am against” civic initiative, which opposes the new pension law in Armenia, entered the conference hall and demanded that the conference participants answer their questions (PHOTOS).
The civic initiative members were suggested to wait until the end of the conference to pose their questions, but they refused to do comply and began presenting their demands.
Persons in civilian clothes forcibly removed the activists from the conference hall, “I am against” member Hayk Avetisyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
At present, the activists are standing outside and shouting, “Shame [on you]!” the Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter informs.
Activist Harutyun Aghlamazyan, on the other hand, told our reporter that violence was committed against himself and several other activists.
The Third Annual International Pension Conference is still in progress. The event has brought together Armenia’s PM, Central Bank chairman, the US ambassador, and the most senior officials from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and a number of other international organizations.
The new funded pension plan, which formally came into force in Armenia on January 1, 2014, is mandatory for those born in and after 1974 and voluntary for those born before 1974. In line with this plan, 5 to 10 percent of the monthly salaries in Armenia will be deducted and mandatorily be allocated to cumulative pension funds; the latter will be reimbursed as pensions once a person turns 63 years old.
On January 24, however, the Constitutional Court decided to suspend the execution of some components in the Law on Funded Pensions pending the hearing—on March 28—of the petition submitted by the four non-ruling-coalition parliamentary forces—the Armenian National Congress, Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and Heritage—, and into the constitutionality of the several articles of the law.
Notwithstanding this, some employers already are deducting the mandatory pension payment from the salaries of their employees.
Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am
