YEREVAN. – The Finance Ministry of Armenia is always ready to discuss issues of public concern and submit clarifications, and it is open to any and all dialogue.  

The Finance Ministry issued a statement with such content, in connection with Friday’s demonstration in front of the ministry building, and which was organized by the “I am against” civic initiative which opposes the new pension law in Armenia.  

“The ‘I am against’ civic initiative members were offered to hand written proposals, or to set up an initiative group, in order to personally present their demands to the minister and to receive the necessary clarifications and explanations. The initiative members, however, refused to accept this dialogue offer by the Finance Ministry,” the latter’s statement specifically reads.   

Hundreds of people assembled near the Finance Ministry building, and demanded that the finance minister come down and answer their questions with respect to the new pension law. But seeing that the minister was not responding to their demands, they blocked the street in front of the ministry building and, as a result, clashes took place between the police and the demonstrators.   

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.