YEREVAN. – I will not comment on the decisions of the Constitutional Court (CC), Armenian Finance Minister Davit Sargsyan stated at a press conference on Wednesday.

Sargsyan reflected on the remark that the CC has exempted from legal responsibilities in the case of not making mandatory funded pension payments.

“I don’t want, and I don’t even have the right, to comment on the CC decisions. But my basic knowledge on law says that there are different kinds of [legal] responsibilities; that [legal] responsibility which the employer has before the state.

“But if the employer has deducted the amount and kept it in his account, does the employee have the right to demand his lost income? And does the employer bear responsibility before his employees? The answer here is unequivocal: yes. And the state, also as the protector of the workers’ rights, will see to it that the employers do not deduct the workers’ money and receive their interests and income,” the minister said, in particular.

Earlier, the Ministry of Finance had issued a statement noting that the employers are required to deduct those amounts and transfer them to the appropriate funds.

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.