YEREVAN. – Special session of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia kicked off Thursday.

The parliament is debating on the draft law on making an amendment to the Law on State Duty. The objective of this bill is to have the provisions laid down by law be in line with the provisions of the tax code of Armenia.

The draft law proposes to increase the annual duty for lotteries and online gambling from 100,000 times to 500,000 times of the current basic duty. In other words, the respective annual duty is expected to increase from 100 million drams (about $208,000) to 500 million drams (about $1,040,200).

The NA special session’s agenda also includes the ratification of three international loan agreements. As a result, the external debt of Armenia will further increase.