In recent years, the Government has been making continuous efforts to effectively fight against voluntary structures, but the mentioned steps do not fully solve the issue of preventing voluntary constructions, and this group of offenses is still a large number in the RA. The administrative penalties imposed for these offenses are not equivalent to the public danger. The Deputy Minister of Justice Armenuhi Harutyunyan said this during the NA regular sitting, reporting the draft law on Making Amendments to the Code of the Republic of Armenia on Administrative Offenses in the first reading.
According to the rapporteur, the draft proposes to establish stricter measures of administrative liability for voluntarily constructing, reconstructing and installing buildings and structures, for construction without a permit or for construction works requiring a permit for installation, for carrying out demolition or dismantling without a permit, for continuing to voluntarily construct buildings and structures in the event of suspension of the voluntary structure, as well as for not completing the construction within the time limits set by the urban development norms for the relevant urban development activities.
The deputy of the Civil Contract Faction Sergey Bagratyan asked the rapporteur what the increase in the amount of the fine changes, mentioning after that the voluntary structures will not disappear in our country. In response to the question, the rapporteur stated that the aim of the draft is to limit the growth of voluntary structures in our country.
The Chair of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Vladimir Vardanyan inquired from the rapporteur in his turn if there is any statistics that the constructor preferred to pay the fine for voluntary construction and that its amount was not effective.
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In response to the question, Armenuhi Harutyunyan said that after the legislative amendments made in 2022, a situation has arisen when it is more beneficial for a citizen to build a voluntary building and pay a fine for it, than to get a permit for the building under construction. The rapporteur mentioned that the objective of the draft is to maintain the balance and not to create additional problems.
The related report of the draft was presented by the Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs Babken Tunyan. The parliamentarian informed that an agreement was reached to discuss all the issues during the period from the first to the second reading.
“We are tightening the responsibility for the entrepreneurs, but we also need to tighten the responsibility and control for those officials who should provide proper service to the entrepreneurs,” Babken Tunyan said.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia