Government Plans to Forgive Credit Obligations of Political Prisoners

The government is set to forgive the credit obligations of political prisoners and formalize it as state support. Tomorrow, a draft decision will be presented at the regular meeting of the government, which aims to forgive the unpaid balance of long-term loans allocated to improve living conditions for political prisoners, as well as late fees, all funded through means established in the state budgets of the Republic of Armenia from 2002 to 2012. This will be recognized as financial support provided by the Government of Armenia to these individuals.

According to the draft, within the frameworks of the funds approved by the Armenian state budgets from 2002 to 2012, a total of 303 citizens holding the status of political prisoners or first-order heirs of political prisoners will receive preferential long-term loans with a repayment period of 25 years and an interest rate of 1% for purposes such as individual housing construction, completing unfinished residential buildings, or acquiring or renovating housing, amounting to a total of 1,272,094,607 AMD.

As of September 10, 2018, borrowers have repaid a principal amount of 201,248,968 AMD and paid 43,212,535 AMD in interest. 19 borrowers fully repaid their debts early, totaling 58 million AMD, while 262 borrowers had overdue obligations totaling 343,138,920 AMD as of September 10, 2018, of which 230,130,276 AMD is the principal amount, 36,662,626 AMD is interest, and 76,346,018 AMD consists of fines for overdue payments.

Notably, 114 borrowers have not made any payments on their credit obligations.

The issue at hand is that the majority of borrowers are elderly and socially disadvantaged individuals who objectively cannot fulfill their credit obligations.

The justification states that the purpose of this decision is to partially address the social problems faced by individuals holding the status of political prisoners. The adoption of this decision will improve the social situation of around 280 people by relieving them from their credit obligations and payments of fines accrued on overdue obligations.