Minister on 10,000 Pensioners Who Did Not Choose the Proposed Payment Option

The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Arsen Torosyan, during a Q&A session in the National Assembly with the government, responded to the question posed by MP Zarouhi Batoyan from the Civil Contract faction regarding the non-cash receipt of pensions and its implications for cashless trade. He stated, 'As of this morning, we already have 10,000 citizens who have yet to choose their payment option in a cashless manner, and today was our final day to allow this voluntarily, as we needed time for the system to transition to cashless payments by April 1. Starting tomorrow, approximately 10,000 citizens will be distributed among four banks, taking geographical accessibility into account.'

He further noted, 'I was just informed a minute ago that the agreements with the four banks have already been signed, and the delivery process will begin. We have repeatedly emphasized that no citizen will be deprived of their right to receive pensions; deliveries will be made to all citizens. Moreover, we have already implemented mechanisms so that if a delivery fails for any reason, a second delivery will occur with the presence of our unified social workers.'

While addressing the accessibility of cashless trade in regions, he mentioned, 'We all know that all of our businesses are required to have POS terminals, and they do not have the right to refuse a citizen to make a cashless purchase. Whenever we hear about such issues, we ask to provide concrete names of the business entities. I'm taking this opportunity to say that if there is any business refusing to sell goods or services to our citizens in a cashless form, that is illegal, and they do not have the right to do so.'

The minister emphasized that no one is canceling cash transactions but, of course, they do not encourage it.