Minister: since beginning of year, number of pensioners using cashback for 10% of non-cash purchases has  increased

ArmInfo. Since the beginning of 2024, the number of pensioners using cashback for 10% of non-cash purchases has increased significantly. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Narek Mkrtchyan stated on June 3 during parliamentary hearings on the results of the budget implementation of Armenia last year.

According to him, currently 240 thousand pensioners are already using cashback, and there are all the  prerequisites for this figure to be brought to the maximum by the end of this year. For comparison, the  minister cited data for the end of 2022, when about 65 thousand pensioners took part in the program. Mkrtchyan also pointed to monitoring data, according to which it turned out that cigarettes and gasoline are  purchased most often with pension cards. "Initially, we did not want to extend cashback to cigarettes and  alcohol, but then it was impossible to develop the necessary solution that would not calculate cashback  from purchasing certain groups of goods. Perhaps a solution can be found," the minister said. The cashback program has been in effect since July 1, 2022. The state returns 10% of the funds to all  pensioners who make purchases of goods and services with their cards, but in an amount not exceeding 50  thousand drams. Almost all banks in the country participate in the program, except for VTB Armenia Bank,  whose cards have stopped being serviced by the ArCa settlement center.