YEREVAN, July 4. /ARKA/. The Armenian government approved Wednesday the draft law on amnesty on administrative fines. 

Artak Zeynalyan, justice minister, said that the law implies that those citizens who were fined for breaching traffic rules before December 31, 2017, will be exempted from payment of these fines.   

He said that the road traffic fines totaling AMD 13.3 billion ($27.5 million) will be forgiven. The amnesty doesn’t apply to drink-driving and providing license plates to other persons.  

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the decision was prompted by the fact that citizens have not paid their fines yet, since they couldn’t afford it. 

“But this doesn’t mean that everybody will be exempted from fines and will drive as they want,” he said. “The thing is that the policy pursued before was not aimed at ensuring public order – it was completely fiscal in nature. Our main goal is to ensure road traffic safety, and therefore we are now discussing new principles.”

In particular, the premier stressed that the government, the justice ministry and the police are working out the draft law on administrative offices to ease fine burden for the population, and at the same time, to enhance drivers’ discipline. 

“Citizens should respect the law,” he said. “We are already working in this direction and the police’s proposals are quite interesting and effective.” -0—