SERZH SARGSYAN’S BLACKLIST IS READY
Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – Friday, 28 February 2014, 17:49
The press has reported that the RPA leadership has considered
postponing enforcement of the law on mandatory funded pension by
one year. There are serious and well-grounded complaints, and Serzh
Sargsyan confessed that 80% of the society does not support the reform.
Of course, the decision on postponing the mandatory funded pension,
if it is made at all, will not be determined by the public opinion. If
public opinion mattered at all, the RPA would not be a ruling party,
Serzh Sargsyan would not be a president, and the government and
National Assembly would not have such members.
A reason for postponing could be money, strange though it may sound.
First, despite hopes to invest the finance from mandatory funded
pension contributions in the economy, a more or less realistic view
shows that the enforcement of the law will send the government into
bigger financial complications.
In particular, it has become known that lots of companies remove
their high-paid young employees from the payroll, and the companies
that have branches or subsidiaries outside Armenia transfer their
employees. Besides, a lot of companies refuse to higher young
employees.
This may deprive the budget of much more income than the money from
the mandatory funded pension. Besides, “solidarity of generations”
lying at the heart of the new law will be seriously violated.
Earlier after the famous decision of the Constitutional Court, several
government agencies, including the SRC, the Ministry of Finance, the
Central Bank issued statements that instructed employers to deduce
the amounts from the salaries. After deductions they threatened that
criminal liability will follow refusal to transfer those amounts to
the pension funds.
The tactics is evident. The government intends to include the maximum
amount of companies and organizations before the next decision of the
Constitutional Court and the political decision of the RPA. Even if
the mandatory funded component is cancelled or postponed, those who
have already joined will not be able to return.
And many have joined, particularly government agencies and big
companies. There are rumors that a list of companies which have joined
has been submitted to Serzh Sargsyan. A lot of companies have been
notified about the list.
Hence, another process is underway – the list of friends has been
updated.
At the same time, ahead of the 2017-2018 electoral period, the
government made an “inventory” to follow up on redistribution of
property and quotas.
It would be interesting to know whether Gagik Tsarukyan and other
PAP businessmen have joined the mandatory funded pension.
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From: Baghdasarian