In these days, the National Assembly is placing the issue on making amendments in the Law on “Funded Pension” on the agenda, and the format it was submitted to the parliament is not acceptable by “I am against” initiative.
In fact, the RA Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan’s promises that they will give solutions to the issues related to the mandatory funded pension system acceptable to everybody,” this inspires neither confidence nor optimism with “I am against” initiative.
“The Prime Minister said that mandatory is actually suspended; however, the draft that was presented to the National Assembly actually and” de jure” just envisages suspension of sanctions. In other words, it is not clear for me how the mandatory component is suspended by this bill, because when non-governmental forces were holding a discussion-meeting with some recommendations, and our requirements is also included in these recommendations to make the State Revenues report voluntary, these amendments are missing from the legislative amendments mentioned by the Prime Minister. We say that we still do not see any optimism in legislative and legal sense,” said the member of “I am against” initiative David Khazhakyan, in the interview with Aravot.
It was remarkable when a few months ago Hovik Abrahamyan was the 2nd face of the country, the Speaker of the National Assembly, and when in the meantime numerous protests were occurring against the “madatory”, the civil initiative had even sent a letter to the National Assembly presenting their concerns, Hovik Abrahamyan had never, being the Speaker of the National Assembly, responded to these concerns of the society, and as soon as he becomes Prime Minister, promptly looked through them carefully, which is evidenced by the words of the Prime Minister posted in the government’s official website. To our observation of why Hovik Abrahamyan as the Speaker of the National Assembly has not looked through the problems with the funded pension system, moreover, he has voted in favor of the “Funded Pensions” bill, and noticed them only after becoming Prime Minister, David Khazhakyan responded, “Your question is relevant, I would add one more question to this, when non-governmental forces suggested discussing the concerns of the matter, why still the Speaker of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan’s faction boycotted it and did not want to listen to the concerns still then.”
As said by David Khazhakyan, a few months ago “I am against” initiative had sent a letter to the National Assembly and Hovik Abrahamyan requesting to discuss the issue at the Parliament, also, a letter was sent to the government with a suggestion to make amendments in the law, and another letter was sent to the President of Armenia as a guarantor of the Constitution. “A letter was sent to all 3 of them and it is not that the issue emerged right now and Hovik Abrahamyan just learned about it.” With regard to the logic of this move made by Hovik Abrahamyan, we also asked his party-member, Republican MP Gagik Minasyan, who said that the Prime Minister was briefed on the details, which stems from the adoption of the law.
“Because there are many other facts that are not stated in the text of the law, the matter is just about them, including the facts that are related to the treatment by this-or-that layer of the society. The draft law was passed more than 3 years ago, and these rebels were not taking place then. In fact, if the rebels were 1, 2, or 3 years ago, the developments would have proceeded much more logically. The law was passed years ago, and 3 years were given for different layers of the society to study the peculiarities of the law in detail, to present their positions, disagreements, which years later would enable to bring the law in a situation that would be acceptable to wider layers of the society. Unfortunately, it did not happen, and only on January 1, when the law was to enter into force, in the last months such displays took place. This is the reason that we appeared in confused.” Then, Mr. Minasyan assured that amendments would be made in the law by September 30 to completely comply with the decisions of the Constitutional Court and be acceptable to the society, at large. Whether the new Prime Minister’s promises are not just putting a “soft cushion” “under the head” of rebellious mass to ultimately reinforce the pension reforms in a tougher way, especially when the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan was introducing Hovik Abrahamyan to the Government as Prime Minister, had stressed that the previous government’s pension reform program will definitely be continued. In this regard, David Khazhakyan said that confidence is based solely on the actions, and in current legislative amendments, “I am against” initiative does not see confidence inspired actions. “The Prime Minister’s assurances have not yet been turned into legislative amendments, at this stage it is too early to talk about having confidence. And then, this uncertain situation angers people, it can be extended for 1, or 2 weeks, but on the 3rd week the wave of protest will be stronger, the sound of protest will be more than audible, and they will have to make these changes in haste.” In his speech about looking through the public concerns, Hovik Abrahamyan had said, “I am confident that the pension reform should have a mandatory component in our country, but we must find a path to the benefit of everyone, which could promote people’s participation in the process: “mandatory, but not forced.””
This wording, according to representative of “I am against” initiative is an unclear wording. “Because, in fact, mandatory is also the current social payments system, we mandatorily make social payments in the form of income tax. In other words, what did the Prime Minister mean by saying mandatory: under already paid amounts, or mandatory under new payments? We say that if it is about the funded pensions, it must be absolutely voluntary.”
NELLY BABAYAN
