Republican Party of Armenia

A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.

Opening the meeting, the Prime Minister addressed the audience. “I would like to start today’s session with a few commissions. The first relates to those department-affiliated institutions and organizations, which are tax payers in Armenia. You may know that the President has instructed the ministers to keep the problem in focus and ministers will have to bear responsibility for agency performance, which implies that each minister should be well informed on the situation in their respective sectors by monitoring the growth rate and ensuring strict compliance with fiscal liabilities, which is to be reported back at cabinet sittings

Secondly, we need to rule out any interference in the activities of tax authorities, which unfortunately is still occurring in the Republic of Armenia. I will keep this issue under my personal control. We have to rule out any mediation. We all should realize that tax collection is an important task which is the responsibility not only of the SRC, but also of all the ministers.

The ministers’ accounts will be heard at the next meeting. Reports will be submitted in the following sequence: Minister of Education and Science, Minister of Transport and Communication, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. You need to collect the necessary reference materials starting today.

Then, the government proceeded with the agenda discussion.

Over AMD10 billion was allocated to the regions to deal with the priority problems, including construction of new schools, cultural facilities etc., which shall be completed by this yearend.

In this connection, the Ministry of Territorial Administration was directed to cooperate with the ministries concerned just as it was the case with school building, where a task force is operational under the Minister of Education and Science: “You will need to cooperate with the Ministry of Urban Development and other government departments responsible for the programs. They should be aware of the amounts spent,” the Prime Minister said.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s National Assembly hearings, the Prime Minister spoke about the speedometers installed on the roads. “Our citizens need assurances that these devices work accurately, are duly certified and placed in the right places. All relevant information should be made available in cooperation with non-governmental organizations.”

The Police Head assured the Prime Minister that the NGOs dealing with licensing issues have already been informed on the matter. An assignment was issued yesterday and a meeting will be held soon to clear up the problem.

The Prime Minister deemed it expedient to air a TV program in order to raise the drivers’ awareness on how these devices work. “Citizens should be aware of these things,” the Premier stressed.

The Ministry of Culture was allocated about USD5mn to prepare for the upcoming CIS-member States’ 7th conference of scientists and scholars in Ashgabad due this October 15-16.

The government decided to lift as of January 10, 2013 the visa requirement for EU-member States and those non-member States adherent to the Schengen agreement. The decision is expected to boost the development of tourism, which in turn will create favorable conditions for interpersonal contacts.