A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The Government redistributed the funds allocated to the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport from the state budget and allocated 3 billion 134 million 615 thousand AMD for construction projects to be completed in 2023. As noted by the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan, there are a number of programs related to modular schools and kindergartens within the framework of the programs to ensure the building conditions of 300 schools and 500 kindergartens.
Referring to the adopted decision, Nikol Pashinyan noted that the implementation of the project to build, reconstruct or overhaul 300 schools and 500 kindergartens continues. The Prime Minister also emphasized that as of now, the construction works of a number of schools have already been completed. The Head of the Government presented the completed and ongoing works.
In that context, the Prime Minister inquired about the criminal cases of confiscation of illegal property regarding 24 kindergartens in Yerevan. In response, Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan presented details, in particular, stating: “The violations recorded as a result of the investigations into the cases of expropriation of kindergartens and the criminal proceedings initiated based on them refer to expropriation at a price lower than the market or cadastral value. Therefore, the subject of the investigation is aimed at finding out the circumstances of the expropriation, the existence of restrictions on the expropriation, the circle of officials in charge and the size of the final damage and restoring the damage caused to the community.”
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The Government approved the bill “On Amendments to the Tax Code of the Republic of Armenia”, which provides for extending the value added tax exemption established for painting electric motor vehicles by another year, until January 1, 2025. As noted by the Deputy Minister of Economy, Armen Khojoyan, the volume of electric motor vehicle imports has increased over the past two years. “Particularly, in 2022, compared to 2021, the import of cars with an electric motor increased 1.8 times, and compared to 2020, about 12 times. The volume of import of motorcycles and mopeds with an electric engine in 2022 increased 3.8 times compared to 2021,” said the deputy minister.
The Government has made additions and amendments to one of the previously adopted decisions, to clarify the provisions of the law “On Amendments and Additions to the Law on Military Service and the Status of Servicemen” regarding female citizens who submitted an application for mandatory military service on a voluntary basis, for the purpose of clarifying the actions carried out in the process of military conscription.
Regarding the topic, Nikol Pashinyan also informed that the Ministry of Defense is completing the reconstruction works of the military base for the women’s battalion. “We understand that this is a completely new institute for the Republic of Armenia and we are doing everything to try to create this service from scratch in every possible way, at the most appropriate level. Of course, we will also be on the spot in the near future, we will get to know the progress of the works, so that everything goes according to our wishes.”
Suren Papikyan also informed that the first conscription of women is planned in the winter of 2024, but the summer conscription is the main expectation.
