Finance Ministry of Armenia does not give a hoot about Constitutional Court's decision

 Finance Ministry of Armenia has disseminated a message in response to the open letter by the public interest group "I am Against!" Particularly, the ministry recommends making accumulative pension payments and choosing a pension fund and a manager for it despite anything.

"In compliance with Article 8.1 of the Law on Accumulative Pension of the Republic of Armenia, employers are responsible for calculation and transfer of accumulative payments. In addition, under Article 37 of the same law, the citizens that fall under the mandatory accumulative pension system are to select a pension fund in line with the requirements of Article 38 until the Constitutional Court determines the constitutionality of Articles 5, 7, 8, 37, 38, 45, 49 and 86 of the Law on Accumulative Pension." The ministry claims that the accumulative payments must be transferred to a special account at the Finance Ministry 9 0000 804 70 20.

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court of Armenia suspended some provisions of the above law on 24 January 2014 until it considers the constitutionality of the above eight articles on Mar 28 2014. Decisions of the Constitutional Court cannot be disputed. The Court suspended Article 76 stipulating responsibility for refusing to make compulsory pension contributions or failing to do in time and Paragraph 3 of Article 86 saying that the employees covered by the system should choose a pension fund. The claim against eight articles of the law has been laid by four opposition parliamentary groups:  Armenian National Congress, ARFD, Heritage and Prosperous Armenia. 

To recall, the voluntary accumulative pension system was introduced in Armenia on Jan 1 2011. The system will become compulsory starting Jan 1 2014. According to the bill, the minimal pension in the country will be equal to the minimum wage, while the basic pension will total 150% of the minimum wage.  The compulsory accumulative pension system will apply to the citizens born after Jan 1 1974 (the citizens below 40). Starting Jan 1 2014, 5% of their salaries will be transferred to their personal accumulative accounts. The government will transfer a similar amount (but no more than 25,000 drams).