Republican Party of Armenia

 A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.

The Government amended one of its previous decisions to compensate the rise in electricity tariffs for poor households in an effort to prevent them from getting even more vulnerable. All those families entitled to poverty benefit will get monetary assistance in the form of 1000 drams added to the base family allowance. 1000 drams will be added to the amount of quarterly urgent care assistance. Thus, the average monthly benefit will increase by AMD1000 from 29,350 to 30,350. Another decision was passed to provide galvanized metal roofing sheets and the import-profile windows to hurricane-hit households in Vardenis community of Armenia. At the same time, the community school building in Madina will be repaired.

According to another decision, the new-generation cash registers shall be introduced step by step for specific groups of SME taxpayers. Namely, instead of July 1, 2014 as projected, they will be introduced as follows: August 1, October 1, 2014 and January 1, 2015. SME taxpayers were allowed to get the cash registers at differentiated prices. The cash registers will be provided free of charge in border villages, while other villages will be entitled to a 50% reduction on the differentiated price.

The Premier considered it necessary to inform society on the government’s new initiative, which is aimed at supporting SMEs.

To create more favorable conditions for migrating labor, the government accepted the proposal to sign a relevant agreement between the governments of the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation on the stay of Armenian citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation and vice versa. The Cabinet next approved a medium-term public spending program for 2015-2017.

The meeting established that those public officers employed in alpine regions will get an extra allowance in the amount of AMD 8 000. Those persons holding public office shall be entitled to heavy and harmful work allowance at a rate of 12 percent of salary and at the rate of 24 percent for particularly severe or harmful jobs.

A number of other decisions were passed to set the amount of the allowance to persons performing civilian work and carrying out maintenance in public agencies.

The government decided to provide regional administrations with additional amounts for purchase of sportswear for those families invited to the “Best sports family” annual competition.

Amending another decision, the government allocated about 98 million drams the regional administrations of Syunik and Vayots-Dzor Marzes to provide food to students in junior grades of secondary schools.

The government decided to hand over to Olympic Rest LLC the complex of buildings and facilities owned by the Yerevan State Olympic Reserve Sports College in Tsakhadzor under a 3-year lease arrangement.

At the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister addressed the audience: “I suggest the Vice Prime Minister to schedule monthly visits of Cabinet members to the countryside and monitor the process. It is quite important and even necessary for the ministers to visit one region at least once a month in order to meet with people and get a first-hand view of the existing problems. It is very important for the government to keep in touch with society and population.”