A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government made changes to previous decisions aimed at contributing to overcoming extreme poverty among the pensioners, the elderly, the disabled and those who get benefits in case of losing the breadwinner. Accordingly, starting from January 1, 2022, it’s proposed to set the minimum pension at 28,600 AMD (instead of 26,500 AMD), the amount of the military disability pension of a serviceman of the compulsory military service 43000 AMD (instead of 40,000 AMD) for the first group disabled person, 33000 AMD (instead of 30000 AMD) for the second group disabled person, 30,000 AMD (instead of 27000 AMD) for the third group disabled person, the amount of the military pension in case of loss of the breadwinner of the family member of the dead (deceased) serviceman of the compulsory military service 30,000 AMD (instead of 27,000 AMD). It is proposed to also increase the amount of old age allowance, disability benefit and benefit in case of loss of breadwinner, setting it at 28,600 AMD (instead of 26,500 AMD), and for a person with a disabled child - 37,000 AMD (instead of 26,500 AMD). By another decision, it is envisaged to increase the amount of childcare allowance for a child up to 2 years old. It is proposed to increase the amount of care allowance by 2100 drams from January 1, 2022, setting it at 28600 AMD, while in rural areas, the care allowance for a child under 2 years old will be set at 57200 AMD.

The Government made a redistribution to the state budget, changes in one of the previous decisions to ensure the implementation of financial obligations under the first and second measures to neutralize the economic impacts of coronavirus and the decisions on “Establishing maximum preferential terms of loans or leasing interest rates set by a number of Government decisions”. It is proposed to allocate a total of additional 8,015,504.4 thousand AMD to the above-mentioned events, of which 6,925,574.6 thousand AMD from tax revenues, 1089,929.8 thousand AMD through redistribution.

Referring to the decision, Nikol Pashinyan noted that more than 25 measures have been taken to neutralize the economic consequences of the coronavirus to support businesses and citizens. “The coronavirus pandemic continues, but we need to review the content of those programs to make sure they are in line with the situation. There will be, of course, programs that we will see no need to continue. There are programs that have been developed to respond to the crisis, but they can work as an effective economic stimulus in general. In this regard, it is very important that we carry out reviews and content updates of the programs”, the PM said.