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.
