YEREVAN. – Instead of spending money on cumulative pensions, the government should better exempt  small business from taxes, MP from Prosperous Armenia Mikael Melkumyan.

He noted that government's expenditures on cumulative pension system, in the form of co-financing of mandatory pension savings, will reach around 21 billion drams. Coincidentally, nearly the same is tax revenue plan for small business.

The MP noted that conditions for small business are becoming worse every year. The number of retail outlets decreased from 19,500 to 13,500 within last 2-2.5 years.

Armenian parliamentary majority, on behalf of the Republican Party of Armenia, on Thursday voted to approve amendments to the law on pensions that was submitted by the government.

The proposed measures, namely cancellation of penalties for rejecting  accumulative pension payments, are accepted temporarily  until the new legislation in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court on April 2 is adopted.  The final package of laws has to be adopted before September 30. Thus, the mandatory funded pension system, which came into force in Armenia from January 1, was temporarily transformed into voluntary.