Thursday,
More Armenian Officials Get Hefty Bonuses
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - The main government building in Yerevan, March 6, 2021.
In a move strongly criticized by Armenia’s leading anti-corruption watchdog,
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has allocated hefty holiday bonuses to his two
deputies and all members of his staff.
In a statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Pashinian’s press office said each
of those 479 officials has received bonuses equivalent to their monthly salary.
The payout cost taxpayers 97.5 million drams ($203,000) in total, it said.
Several government ministers acknowledged that they and their subordinates too
have received such yearend payments. But they refused to reveal any figures.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian rewarded all members and staffers of the
National Assembly just as lavishly last week. Simonian approved similar, albeit
slightly more modest, bonuses on the occasion of Armenia’s Independence Day
marked on September 21.
Both opposition alliances represented in the National Assembly criticized that
decision as profligate and unethical. Lawmakers representing them donated the
money to victims of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and their families.
Pashinian significantly increased the amount and frequency of bonuses paid to
civil servants and especially high-ranking government officials after coming to
power in 2018. Responding to criticism from opposition figures and other
government critics, he has said that these payments discourage corrupt practices
in the government and the broader public sector.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a cabinet meeting in Yerevan,
December 16, 2021.
The Armenian affiliate of the anti-graft watchdog Transparency International,
has dismissed these explanations. Its program coordinator, Varuzhan Hoktanian,
on Thursday denounced the lopsided bonuses as “political corruption” aimed at
making sure that Pashinian’s political allies and other senior officials stay
loyal to the prime minister.
“The loyalty of doctors, teachers or kindergarten workers is probably not
important,” Hoktanian said, alluding to much more modest salaries and bonuses
received by these and other public sector employees.
Most of them are paid less than Armenia’s official average wage of 200,000 drams
($417) a month. Government ministers and deputy ministers earn 1.5 million and 1
million drams respectively.
Pashinian caused uproar in 2019 when it emerged that he secretly doubled these
officials’ monthly incomes.
Hoktanian argued that the latest holiday bonuses paid by Pashinian are also not
performance-based.
“If the people’s living standards improve and pensions are raised …
significantly, then [the senior officials] are doing a good job and let them get
[those bonuses,]” he said. “But I don’t see that. So what’s the difference from
the past when they stole from the state budget? Now they have simply legalized
that theft.”
Armenia Lifts Ban On Imports From Turkey
• Sargis Harutyunyan
A man walks beside trucks waiting to cross into Iran from the Turkish side of
the border near the Gurbulak border crossing between Turkey and Iran on June 27,
2012, at Dogubeyazit.
The Armenian government has lifted a ban on imports of manufactured goods from
Turkey which it initiated during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ban came into force on December 31, 2020 and was extended by six months in
June. Yerevan described it as retaliation for Ankara’s “inflammatory calls,”
arms supplies to Azerbaijan and “deployment of terrorist mercenaries to the
conflict zone.”
The Armenian Ministry of Economy told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on December 13
that it will likely recommend another six-month extension to the government.
However, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet has adopted no such decisions
since then. The cabinet held its last session of the year on Thursday.
In a statement issued later in the day, the Ministry of Economy confirmed that
the embargo will no longer be in force starting from January 1. The ministry
said this is the result of “interagency discussions” held in recent weeks.
Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian hinted at the impending lifting of the ban when
he spoke with journalists on Tuesday. “Political motives will be the overriding
ones,” he said.
Armenia and Turkey are due to start soon talks on normalizing bilateral
relations. The governments of the two neighboring states appointed special
envoys for that purpose earlier this month.
Armenia -- A commercial truck enters Armenia from Georgia through the Gogavan
border crossing, November 29, 2018. (Photo by the Armenian State Revenue
Committee)
In recent months, Turkish leaders have made statements making the normalization
of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on Armenia agreeing to open a land
corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. They have
also cited Baku’s demands for a formal Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani
sovereignty over Karabakh.
Citing these statements, Armenian opposition leaders have accused Pashinian of
being ready to make unilateral concessions to Ankara and Baku. The Armenian
Foreign Ministry has insisted that Yerevan continues to stand for “normalizing
relations with Turkey without preconditions.”
Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia and kept the
border between the two states closed since the early 1990s out of solidarity
with Azerbaijan. It has also banned all imports from Armenia.
Armenia imported (mostly via Georgia) $267 million worth of Turkish-manufactured
products in 2019. According to the Ministry of Economy, Turkish imports fell to
just $20 million in the first nine months of 2021.
The ministry statement released on Thursday said the ban, which does not cover
raw materials, has had both positive and negative effects on the Armenian
economy.
“The positive results include a number of newly established or expanded
manufacturing businesses in the light industry, construction materials,
furniture and agricultural sectors,” it said. “But the main negative consequence
of the embargo is its substantial impact on inflation.”
Armenian Tax Revenue Up In 2021
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- The entrance to the State Revenue Committee headquarters in Yerevan,
November 29, 2018.
The Armenian government reported on Thursday a more than 14 percent rise in its
tax revenue in 2021 reflecting renewed economic growth in the country.
Rustam Badasian, the head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC), said his agency
collected almost 1.59 trillion drams ($3.3 billion) in various taxes and duties.
It thus surpassed the revenue target set by Armenia’s 2021 state budget by 146
billion drams ($304 million), Badasian said during a weekly cabinet meeting in
Yerevan.
Speaking at the meeting, Finance Minister Tigran Khachatrian said the surplus
allowed the government to spend an additional 85 billion drams this year. In
particular, he said, it doubled economic assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh to 128
billion drams ($267 million).
Overall government spending thus reached 1.94 trillion drams ($4 billion). It is
projected to increase by nearly 13 percent in 2022.
The 2022 state budget calls for a sharper rise in the government’s tax revenue.
That would cut the budget deficit that widened considerably last year to a deep
recession primarily caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a resulting shortfall
in tax revenue.
The Armenian economy contracted by 7.4 percent in 2020 before returning to
growth this spring. It was projected to grow by at least 4.2 percent in 2021.
Tax collection improved as a result of the renewed growth as well as the
government’s continued fight against tax evasion. In Badasian’s words, the
number of the country’s officially registered workers paying taxes increased by
over 7 percent, to 654,000, in the course of the year.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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