“As a housewife, could you please say what one can do with 35000 AMD, how can one live for a month?” in response to this question of www.aravot.am, Karine Achemyan, a Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP, said today, “Certainly, it is hard to live. Certainly, we would very much like it to be higher.” In response to our observation that it was more than hard, it was even less than the minimum consumer basket, she said, “You know what, the calculations have been made in the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet. We cannot expand the budget, in order that we are able to make all those expenses, as we like. However, as a result of these slow, but consistent increases, perhaps, it will be better sometime in the future.”
In response to our question whether it wasn’t possible not to spend money on luxury goods, for example, Toyota Camries, on which the National Assembly had spent government money to give them to the MPs, whether one couldn’t gradually reduce expenditures like that and pay wages that corresponded to the consumer basket, Ms. Achemyan said, “Going to such details… I know myself that the National Assembly doesn’t waste money. If you think that one shouldn’t give the cars intended for the National Assembly or other government officials, it is a different matter. The National Assembly pursues many policies of saving and no luxurious car has been bought recently.”
We inquired whether it wasn’t possible to reduce kickbacks and save money, Ms. Achemyan said, “Active work on that is under way.” In response to a question whether increasing the minimum wage by 2500 AMD was the least one could do, according to her, the RPA MP said, “Naturally, we would very much like it not to increase by 2500, but to double, triple. However, we can increase within the limits of what our budget allows today.”
As for when it would be possible to at least make the minimum consumer basket and the minimum wage equal, Karine Achemyan said, “It will double within 5 years, according to the program. If within these years, one manages to do so that the inflation rates don’t rise, our budget is filled with taxes, certainly, everything is possible, if consistent work is done. However, it is not that appropriate to blame us at the moment, because whoever was in the Cabinet today, he wouldn’t be able to make a big change.”
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We inquired whether she could say as a housewife how much money she spent on the most necessary food commodities every month. Ms. Achemyan replied, “I never count, because
our family is not that big, I am very economical and I manage. It is not like we had or have so much money. We live on salary too. We manage within the limits of the family budget.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
