Armenian opposition MPs concerned over 2014 draft budget

Armenia’s parliamentary opposition has voiced its concerns over the draft state budget proposed for next year.

Speaking at a National Assembly debate on Wednesday, Hrant Bagratyan of the opposition Armenian National Congress said the clause on budgetary revenues was almost missing from the document.

“The whole budget contains only six lines about revenues. If there is any other line, come and say it. You [the authorities] are to blame for that because that makes the budget a crippled tool. Where do you see anything about budgetary revenues?” he asked.

Responding to his remark, the chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs expressed his disagreement. “I haven’t found anything problematic about the [proposed] law. If you have any problems, I am ready to discuss them with you,” Gagik Minasyan said.

Commenting on the bill, the opposition MP Alexander Arzumanyan noted the document had been drafted in completely different political circumstances. “When it was drafted, the decision on the [Eurasian] Customs Union membership had not been made yet; hence the data concerning revenues had not been taken into account. By joining the Customs Union, we will no longer be able to get what we want to,” he said.

Artsvik Minasyan of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D) later asked Koryun Nahapetyan, a ruling Republican Party lawmaker responsible for the Defense Ministry’s budgetary expenditures, whether there are any plans or possibilities for ensuring women's enlistment in the military.

Nahapetyan, who heads the NA Standing Committee on European Integration, said that the law in effect does not offer any opportunities for involve women, as well as the compatriots from the Diaspora, in the army service. But he promised to address the issue in the near future.

“I think we will also address the new methods of [army] enrichment. There have been debates in different formats, as well as a working meeting devoted particularly to the Diaspora-Armenians’ enlistment issue, so I believe there will be new approaches,” he answered.