YEREVAN. – Newly appointed PM Hovik Abrahamyan will first introduce to the “Dem.Am [I am against]” civic initiative—which opposes the mandatory component of the new pension law in Armenia—the draft proposal on the funded pension. 

Initiative member Mane Tandilyan stated the aforesaid at a press conference on Saturday.

“We told the PM that, before the draft is introduced to the NA [National Assembly], it be introduced to us, so we may see whether or not this draft corresponds to our points,” she said.  

For his part, “Dem.Am” member Davit Manukyan stated that otherwise, they will be convinced that, “this government likewise is proceeding along the road of the preceding [one].”  

“Hovik Abrahamyan is petitioning to the National Assembly solely with respect to the calculation of the fines. But we demand [the implementation of] all points we have proposed,” he added.

On April 28, the government is preparing to introduce a draft proposal at the NA, and concerning the calculation of the mandatory-funded-pension-related fines.

On April 2, the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia declared unconstitutional a whole series of articles in the new Law on Funded Pensions. Despite this ruling, however, the state-run financial institutions still oblige the employers to make mandatory funded pension cuts from the salaries of their employees. The respective reasoning is that the CC gave the parliament and the government until September 30 to amend the aforesaid law’s provisions that were deemed unconstitutional.