The 2019 State Budget doesn’t envisage raising the salaries of contract military servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia. This is what Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Defense Gabriel Balayan declared during a discussion on the report on the course of implementation and achieved outcomes of reforms during the March 22 session of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly.

He particularly stated that increasing the salaries by AMD 5,000 and even AMD 1,000 will become a serious burden for the state budget.

However, Balayan didn’t rule out the fact that if there are free funds during the year, the government will be able to make amendments to the budget, and those funds will be geared towards increase of the salaries of military servicemen.