Tasks clear for coming year

Yerkir/arm
24 Dec 04

Summarizing the ARF activities for this year, Hrayr Karapetian,
National Assembly’s ARF faction secretary said that there have been
three major directions on which the faction presented initiatives in
the National Assembly this year. First of all, it is the package of
laws regarding the social sphere, namelyth e law on minimal
consumption basket.

Karapetian says: `Note that all previous parliaments
unsuccessfullytried to adopt such a law, but only this one
succeeded. It is becoming a precedent for this law to be reflected in
the budget of each year, and the size of the minimal wage will be
raised in accordance with rise of the overall budget. This mainly
concerns socially insecure layers and simultaneously regulates the
activities of the government.’

He also outlined the laws on taxes. It is no secret that shadow
economy tells upon the budget income and laws should be designed so
that to bring the shadow economy into light. Karapetian said that over
47 billion drams of extra income were provided due to recovered money
from the shadow economy.

The faction also prioritized the adoption of the law protecting the
interests of small and medium entrepreneurs. And due to the consistent
action of the faction the budget credit for the latter business have
increased by 300 million drams.

As to national security issue, the new law on `State financial
maintenance’ is unprecedented. The faction has also prioritized
anti-corruption legislation and the law on `Lobbying’ which will be
discussed at the next session.

In addition, the law on `Fight against terrorism’, which has passed
the first reading and was send to European experts, will be discussed
at the next session.

The Electoral Code has been agreed on principle points, and the
faction hopes that its recommendations will help to avoid violations
during the elections.

Over 500 letters with requests and complaints on various issues were
received by the parliament in 2004. The secretary says most of them
were addressed and appropriate solutions were maximally provided. Yet,
the secretary believes the parliament’s work has not been satisfactory
and a new program for 2005 is being developed.

Karapetian also said that some instability arose in regards to the
deposits issue at the end of the year, which, as Karapetian believes,
will not cause serious conflicts within the coalition. He also said
that the opposition tried to speculate on this issue, but failed.