ArmInfo. It is important for the Armenian government that the assistance provided to citizens is targeted against the backdrop of the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. On April 6, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said this during online questions and answers, answering the question why the government decided not to help all children, but only those whose parents lost their jobs because of the coronavirus.
According to him, the logic of the government is to provide assistance to those who really need it, there are groups of the population, families in which children are not so much in need of help than in others. <Our goal is to help the most needy. In addition, the government has various assistance projects. And it happens that members of the same family benefit from various government assistance projects>, he said, adding that the government has 9 such projects, however, these projects will be continued, monitoring will be carried out and new vulnerable groups will be identified.
He also stated that the government received information that a number of enterprises sent employees on forced leave, without paying for it. Pashinyan stated that data on this will be received in the second decade of April, when the statistics of tax revenues will be presented, and based on the analysis, the possibilities of helping these people will be considered.
Speaking about payments for studying at universities, Pashinyan noted that after the educational process is resumed, there is an order of the Minister of Education not to demand payment for students for the first two weeks, and then do it on an individual schedule for each student. At the same time, he called on those students who have the opportunity to transfer fees to do so, so that it would be possible to pay salaries to lecturers.
Touching upon the issue of bonuses to high-ranking officials, the prime minister noted that in March, officials will not receive these bonuses by his own decision and these funds will be transferred to the assistance fund from the coronavirus.
On remarks about whether it would be better to send these funds to pensioners, Pashinyan noted that the annual bonus fund is 1 billion drams and if these funds are calculated on the number of pensioners in the republic, then the monthly allowance will be 165 drams, while the government significantly increased the amount of pensions last year.
At the same time, he assured that it was thanks to these bonuses that they were able to ensure unprecedented economic performance in the country and add salaries of 1 million, 90 thousand citizens.