Pashinyan announces steps to return 70 billion drams to citizens
YEREVAN, January 30. /ARКА/. During a government meeting, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the introduction of a universal income declaration system, which, according to him, will become part of the social credit system.
"It is important to note that we are creating an infrastructure to return 100 thousand drams annually to each employee. We may decide to eliminate payments for employees with very high incomes, and for the rest, they will amount to 150 thousand drams. I won’t provide specific figures now to avoid creating expectations," he said.
The Prime Minister reiterated that these funds are intended for education and medical services.
"In fact, those who oppose this system (the declaration system) or claim it should not be implemented are essentially opposing the return of 70 billion drams to citizens," added Armenian Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan.
About the Declaration System
The universal income declaration system for citizens and residents is being implemented in Armenia starting from January 1, 2023, over a three-year period. The draft was finally adopted by parliament in December 2022. As then-Finance Minister Tigran Khachatryan stated in November 2022, the declaration must be pre-filled by the tax authorities. It was expected that the data at the disposal of the tax authorities would be automatically entered into the declaration, which would then be sent to the email for review.
Under the new procedure, all adult resident citizens must submit a declaration.
At the first stage, declarations were submitted by citizens holding community or public positions and their family members, as well as individuals engaged in entrepreneurial activities.
At the second stage, starting in 2024, declarations are to be filled out by salaried workers in the private sector and employees who received income under civil law contracts.
Starting in 2025, all citizen-residents of the country who are not included in the first two groups will be required to submit declarations.
Citizens are required to submit their declarations before May 1 of each year following the reporting year. In case of evasion or delay, fines are imposed—50,000 drams for entrepreneurs and 5,000 drams for other citizens. ($1 = 398.27 drams)
