Government Busy Finding Ways to Collect Money from Citizens Since Coming to Power, Says Edmon Marukyan

Edmon Marukyan, the leader of the "Bright Armenia" faction in the National Assembly, posted on his Facebook page:

"Since coming to power, they have been busy finding ways to collect more money from citizens. I would like to inform you that the government has initiated a draft law that would increase the rates of the state duty for applying to the court.

Specifically:

• When applying to the first instance court for monetary claims in civil cases, the state duty will increase from the current 2% of the claim amount to 3%. For non-monetary claims, the current base rate of 4 times the state duty will increase several times, and citizens will be obliged to pay 20 times the base rate (the base unit of the state duty is 1000 drams).
• For applying to the first instance court for special procedures, the current base duty and its tripled version will instead require the payment of 20 times the base rate.
• For filing an appeal against the decisions of the general jurisdiction first instance court regarding monetary claims, the current rate of 3% of the disputed amount will become 4%. For non-monetary claims, instead of the current base duty multiplied by 10, it will be required to pay 30 times the base rate. For special procedures, the current rate of 8 times the base duty will increase to 25 times.
• For cassation appeals against the acts of the appellate civil court, the current rate of 3% of the monetary claims will become 5%, while for non-monetary claims, the current state duty of 20 times the base rate will double, obliging citizens to pay 40 times the base rate. In the case of special procedures, the current rate of 10 times the base duty will triple, requiring a payment of 30 times the base rate.

Interestingly, the justification for the draft also includes information provided by the Ministry of Finance, which indicates that the statistics of the previous two years show that the costs of administering justice have exceeded the amounts collected by the courts in state duties by up to 4 times or more.

This raises the question of whether such calculations are justified in any way. After all, the administration of justice is a state exclusive authority carried out by the court, not a business intended to profit its participants.

On the other hand, the judicial service is funded not only through state duties but also from the state budget, which means it is largely funded by the taxes paid by all of us. In other words, we pay taxes to have an available and impartial system of justice.

The current government has been busy finding ways to collect more money from citizens since coming to power, a vivid example of which is this draft law, as well as the increase in property tax, the hike in exchange point fees specifically for narrower circles, the increase in hunting license fees, and other initiatives that I won't enumerate now, contrary to the electoral campaign two years ago.

In these social conditions, raising the state duties for applying to the court is yet another setback not only in ensuring access to the courts and the right to a fair trial but also on the path to building a person-centered society."