YEREVAN. – The amendments that are proposed in Armenia’s pension law do not satisfy the four non-ruling National Assembly (NA) factions (Armenian National Congress (ANC), Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and Heritage).    

Opposition ANC NA Faction Head Levon Zurabyan stated the abovementioned to reporters on Wednesday. 

In his words, the “parliamentary four” considers the proposed changes in the funded pension plan to be unacceptable, and especially the proposal that the funded pension deductions will be mandatory for the civil servants, but voluntary—until July 2017—in the private sector.

“The division of the people into two and even three groups, and the differentiation based on this, is unacceptable for us. We favor a generations’ solidarity pension system, and we agree to any reforms with a similar format,” Zurabyan stressed.

In May, the National Assembly passed the amendments to the Law on Funded Pensions. Accordingly, the mandatory funded pension deductions from salaries are temporarily suspended. And pursuant to the Constitutional Court’s April 2 decision, the final version of the pension plan must be prepared and submitted to the new package of bills by no later than September 30. The government, however, plans to carry this out earlier, and by increasing the state salaries by July 1.