FOUR MORE CHILDREN PER DAY OR GROWTH OF POVERTY

Lragir.am
Oct 23 2006

If in 2006 the Armenian government allocated 1.256 billion drams for
the one-time benefit on the birth of a child, next year the government
estimates to spend 1.326 billion drams.

The size of the one-time benefit paid on birth of a child will remain
35 thousand drams. In other words, if the government had estimated 99
children a day this year, next year the government hopes to see 103
children born every day. On the other hand, it should be taken into
account that the one-time benefit doubles for poor families. In other
words, it is possible that the birth rate will not grow, but there
will be more poor families, therefore 60 million more drams will be
required for one-time benefits. Meanwhile, the government thinks that
the demand for the passport of a citizen of Armenia will grow.

Against 142.862 million drams allocated for printing passports in
2006 the government has estimated 172.212 million drams for printing
passports of the Republic of Armenia in 2007.

The government also proposes "setting aside" 93.366 million drams
to reward lawyers who will provide free legal service in the cases
provided for by the Armenian legislation against 26 million drams
of 2006. In other words, the government supposes that either the
poor class will decide to go to court to solve their problems, which
is not particularly popular with people in Armenia, since even the
members of parliament and ministers prefer solving their problems
between themselves. Or the percentage of people who will prefer to go
to court will not change, but the number of people who cannot afford
to hire a lawyer will grow, which is the same as poverty will grow.

The comparison of the state budgets of 2006 and 2007 shows that the
alternative military service is not popular in Armenia. If in 2006
43.850 million drams was allocated to the ministries of health,
defense, social security for the alternative military service, in
2007 the same ministries will get only 26.876 million drams for the
same purpose.