YEREVAN. –At its Cabinet session Thursday, the government did not approve the bill on making amendments to the law on state pensions, and which the opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament had submitted.

In particular, this bill proposes to revoke the provisions on pensioners who receive non-cash retirement pensions to go to a bank at least once a year and sign a statement about their being in Armenia.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was infuriated over this draft law.

“This situation arose as a result of when it turned out that there are tens of thousands of pensioners in Armenia who [actually] don’t exist and who receive pensions,” he said, in particular. “As a result of that, billions [of drams] in damages have been caused to the state. [And] now are we offering to create corridors so that the same thing happens again? I absolutely don’t understand this logic.”

In Pashinyan’s words, even though people need to be helped in order to make certifications easier for them, this should be done by way of moving forward.

“To this day, there are non-existing beneficiaries in Armenia,” the PM added. “Great deal of efforts is required by us to go after that system. [But] instead of going forward, we are doing everything to going backward.”