Wednesday, November 3 2021 14:00

ArmInfo. The budget of the National Assembly of Armenia in 2022, in comparison with the indicator approved for the current year, will slightly decrease -  from 6 billion 090 million to 5 billion 952.3 million drams. Minister  of Finance of Armenia Tigran Khachatrian stated this on November 3 at  the preliminary discussions of the state budget at the joint sitting  of the NA Standing Committees.

As stated by the NA Chief of Staff, Secretary General Vahan  Naribekyan, the funds envisaged by the draft state budget are 510  million or 9.8% less than the budget proposal submitted by the  parliament. Of the funds envisaged by the document, about 3 billion  659 million drams is made up of the salary fund of the National  Assembly.

MPs from the Civil Contract bloc, head of the NA Standing Committee  on Financial- Credit and Budgetary Affairs Gevorg Papoyan noted  during the discussion that since February 2020, parliamentarians do  not actually receive bonuses (30% of salaries). According to Papoyan,  bonuses of 30% of the total salary fund are provided for the  employees of the parliamentary stuff. "These are drivers, experts in  parliamentary committees, assistants to MPs and technical personnel.  They will continue to receive bonuses, but MPs will not," the head of  the committe assured.

As the Chief of Staff of the National Assembly said, from 2022 the  legislative body has a new item of expenditure - assistance to  political forces. Previously, this line was entrusted to the office  of the Prime Minister. Next year, 250 million 684 thousand drams will  be allocated for assistance. The funds will be distributed in  proportion to the votes they received in the early parliamentary  elections.

 In particular, the ruling "Civil Contract" party will receive 144  million 639 thousand drams, the "Republic" party - 38 million 758  million, the "Prosperous Armenia" party - 50 million 444 thousand,  and the Hayastan bloc - 16 million 842 thousand drams. The "I Have  the Honor" bloc, headed by the former director of the National  Security Service of Armenia Artur Vanetsyan, will not receive  funding, since it has not overcome the 7% threshold provided for by  the Law on Parties, Naribekyan explained (Parties that cross the 3%  threshold, and blocs that cross the 7% threshold receive funding,Ed.  Note).  To recall, the National Assembly of Armenia in July 2021 at  an extraordinary meeting adopted a draft law prepared by the  pro-government MPs, according to which the amount of the monthly  amount allocated for the parliamentary expenses of each MP was  increased from 50 thousand to 250 thousand drams. This amount is  allocated to MPs separately from their salaries. The rationale for  the project notes that the current regulation has not been revised  since the adoption of the law, while over the years there has been a  significant increase in costs.