If you walk down the street and someone says, 'I'm cold, give me your clothes,' that's unacceptable: Pashinyan

We note that there are 218,000 people in Armenia who have loans of less than 1 million drams, which have been classified as non-performing loans for at least three years. This was stated by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at a government meeting.

“We have developed a project and we suggest that they can work under this regulation, and for repaying these debts during their employment, instead of 50 percent of their salary being withheld, only 20 percent will be withheld. If a person goes to work officially, they will pay 20 percent of their salary instead of 50 percent, and in addition, we will direct their entire income tax to pay off their old debts within the upcoming 24 months. A mandatory condition is that during these 24 months they must be employed in a formal job,” he said.

He emphasized that having a culture of handling every penny is very important. “How do we handle our little and much money? This is the foundation of prosperity and economic development. Everyone who takes out a loan should hold themselves accountable, not to mention those long stories like taking an agricultural loan, buying a tractor, and then throwing it down the ravine, expecting the government to fix it. We assist where there is a need for help, but we must also say, 'Dear friends, this is not the way.' Such conduct is unacceptable, and we must talk about it,” Pashinyan stated.

According to Pashinyan, it is still not fully understood in our society that taking out a loan carries risks and responsibilities. “Every day I receive 20-30 letters from people saying, ‘I took out a loan and can’t pay it back,’ this is unacceptable talk. Financial literacy has fundamental issues. One of those issues is that you cannot say, ‘I took out a loan and cannot pay it off, come and pay it for me this time.’ This is the same as walking down the street and someone says, ‘I’m cold, give me your clothes.’ We know you shouldn’t say that, and this is the same,” he mentioned.