Accusations During State Budget Discussion

The National Assembly discussed and approved the items on the agenda, including agreements, in the session that began on December 3, in both the first and second readings.

The revised version of the 2025 state budget draft was also fully approved, which includes changes to revenues, expenditures, and the deficit. According to the revised draft, GDP is forecasted at 10 trillion 891 billion drams, with an economic growth rate of 5.1%. These figures have been adjusted downward compared to the initial draft, by 158 billion drams and 0.5 percentage points, respectively. The parliamentary opposition voted against this draft.

After the budget vote, ruling and opposition parliamentarians began exchanging accusations. Opposition member Gegham Manukyan delivered a speech, accusing the ruling party of supporting a document that would "increase state debt, and raise taxes and fees." In response, Vaheghn Alexanderian of the Civil Contract faction stated that he wanted to note that the “Armenia” faction voted against the budget proposal which stipulates that Armenian servicemen should be paid salaries, the elderly should receive pensions, weapons should be purchased for the Armenian army, and construction work should be carried out. “This is everything one needs to know about the 'Armenia' faction,” added Alexanderian.

For his part, Babken Tunyan, a member of the Civil Contract faction, reminded Gegham Manukyan that just minutes earlier, he and the 'Armenia' faction abstained from voting on a proposal that aimed to reduce fines for minor violations of VAT rules. “You abstain from voting on proposals that clearly protect the interests of entrepreneurs,” noted the parliamentarian.

Arthur Khachatryan of the 'Armenia' faction responded to Vaheghn Alexanderian's observation by stating that the faction voted against the 2025 budget because insufficient funds were allocated for the army, healthcare, and education. “Dear compatriots, I hope you understand what we voted against. This is a budget for living on debt,” announced Khachatryan.

Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan also responded to the events in the chamber, reminding that opposition partners had also voted against providing a loan for the construction of the Kajaran tunnel in Syunik Province. It should be noted that today, a project to ratify the agreement on "Providing an investment loan for financing the 'Kajaran Tunnel Construction' project from the Eurasian Development Bank's Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development" was also approved, which stipulates providing a loan of $200 million for the construction of the Kajaran tunnel and the reconstruction of a section of the M2 road. The project plans to carry out construction works for approximately 7 kilometers of the Kajaran tunnel and around 4 kilometers of reconstruction work on the existing M2 road.