We Are Preparing a Draft Law to Cancel Loan Penalties and Fines, Says Prime Minister

In the summer of 2018, we made a decision to forgive loan penalties and fines totaling 13 billion drams for citizens, as well as cleanse the credit histories of 125,000 borrowers. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this during a Q&A session with citizens on April 6.

“However, since then, we have seen that most of our citizens quickly find themselves under penalties and fines again. We realized that forgiving fines does not help people. That’s why we created agricultural programs, where we offered preferential conditions on the condition that farmers would go through a specific training process to enhance their knowledge, after which they would be eligible for loans. Because we freed people from 13 billion drams in penalties and fines, but that very same 13 billion quickly came back to haunt these individuals,” stated Pashinyan.

“Therefore, we have created various programs to encourage work and exempted microbusinesses from taxes. We are now preparing to adopt another law that will provide the opportunity to nullify citizens' penalties and fines. We are currently drafting another law regarding the forgiveness of loan penalties and fines,” the Prime Minister announced.

Regarding the question of why the government did not offer loan holidays, the Prime Minister responded, “My remarks regarding loan holidays are being distorted. I have said that before loud declarations from the National Assembly podium, the Central Bank President and the government have already approached banks on this issue. At this moment, as a result of our actions, 3,700 legal entities in Armenia have been granted loan holidays, with the total amount for restructuring those holidays reaching 11.5 billion drams. Currently, loan holidays have also been granted to 190,000 individuals, with deferred repayments amounting to approximately 8 billion drams.”