Proposal to Quadruple Court Filing State Duty Amount: "Pahst"

The Ministry of Justice proposes to make amendments and additions to the Law on State Duties of the Republic of Armenia. The adoption of the draft is expected to align the rates of state duties paid for lawsuits, applications, and appeals against court decisions to current socio-economic indicators.

It is noted that the state duty rates for lawsuits, applications, and appeals against court decisions have not been modified since the adoption of the Law on Amendments and Additions to the Law on State Duties on October 12, 1999, and the current rates do not reflect the existing socio-economic relations in the country. Over the past 20 years, per capita Gross Domestic Product, average monthly wages, the cost of the minimum consumer basket, the minimum wage, and the consumer price index have all increased.

Furthermore, according to the Ministry of Finance, statistics from the last two years show that expenses for the administration of justice have exceeded the revenues collected by courts through state duties by up to four times or more.

The draft proposes the following:

1. To increase the current rates of state duties by an average of up to four times. As a result, the minimum duty for monetary claims will be set at 6,000 AMD, which constitutes approximately 9.77% of the minimum consumer basket. Similarly, a review of the rates for monetary claim lawsuits and applications, as well as other cases of duty collection, is also proposed.
2. To set a maximum ceiling for the duty at about 407 times the minimum consumer basket, amounting to 25,000,000 AMD in the first instance of the general jurisdiction court. It is also proposed to establish maximum duties in the Court of Appeal at 15,000,000 AMD and in the Court of Cassation for civil cases at 10,000,000 AMD.
3. To determine maximum and minimum amounts of duties for cases examined under administrative proceedings.
4. To separate the regulations regarding duty rates for civil, administrative, and bankruptcy proceedings, specifying them in separate sections of the same article.
5. To review the duty amounts for applications submitted to the Constitutional Court.
6. To amend the cases for establishing exemptions from duty payment. It is proposed to reassess the provisions that are practically not applied, such as cases related to concession or reduction of fines. As an exemption, it is suggested to include cases of filing a lawsuit for the enforcement of decisions made by the conciliators of the financial system.
7. In cases of special proceedings in administrative litigation, it is proposed to establish exemptions for challenges regarding the legality of decisions and actions of the community head concerning the holding of gatherings, as well as claims presented by NGOs related to environmental protection.
8. In connection with the comprehensive list of final court acts enshrined in the Civil Procedure Code, to reassess the cases of exemptions related to decisions on terminating the proceedings and leaving the claim unexamined.