Armenian president dissatisfied with social insurance collection
Public Television of Armenia
10 Mar 05
[Presenter] The Armenian Tax Service collected 8.7bn drams [18.5m
dollars] in social payments in January and February, which is 2bn
more than last year.
President Kocharyan thinks that this is not the result that was
expected when the Tax Service was given the authority to collect
compulsory social payments.
During a working meeting today Robert Kocharyan, the prime minister,
the ministers of labour and social security, finance and economy,
the director of the State Social Insurance Fund and the head of the
State Tax Service discussed social insurance payments.
[Correspondent] During today’s working session, which discussed issues
connected with the social payments, President Kocharyan noted that,
after the function of collecting social payments was handed over to
the tax service, there needs to be a discussion on what improvements
can be seen in this process.
[Robert Kocharyan, captioned] It is obvious that there is positive
change, but this is not what we were expecting. We have reserves
and we must work more actively, taking into consideration that we
are planning to increase pensions and we must be confident that the
government is able to fulfil its obligations and responsibilities
before the pensioners.
[Correspondent] The president noted the importance of reform of the
minimum wage in increasing the collection of social payments and the
struggle against latent employment. Kocharyan also noted that it must
be explained to the public that those who receive shadow wages and do
not pay taxes today are depriving themselves of a pension in future
in accordance with payment for their work.
The president also noted that, as pensions are to be increased,
all the processes regarding this sphere should be settled to instil
confidence that the government is able to fulfil its obligations before
the pensioners. Ways to improve the system of family allowances were
considered as well.
At the end of the session President Kocharyan ordered the minister
of finance and economy to discuss issues regarding the completion of
the state budget planning process a month earlier and to view raising
the minimum salary from 2006.
The State Tax Service was instructed to examine international
experience and implement additional measures to reduce shadow
employment.
The president instructed the minister of labour and social affairs to
present efficient mechanisms for preventing delays in paying family
allowances, while the director of the State Social Insurance Fund will
have to clarify the lists of pensioners and exclude any possibility
of the illegal insertion of other names.