Thursday, 28 November 2013
Finalized 2014 State Budget Bill To Be Submitted To National Assembly
A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
The Government approved the amended indicators specified in the 2014 State budget bill, as well as a consolidated list of proposals and findings that had been presented to the Government, based on the outcome of the debates held by standing commissions, parliamentary groups, factions and members of Parliament.
Within a two days’ timeline, the heads of government agencies will have to submit to the Ministry of Finance relevant proposals on the Government’s approaches as formulated in a summary worksheet. The Minister of Finance shall submit the amended version to the Government, after which the Minister-Chief of Government Staff will forward it to the National Assembly in the prescribed manner.
During the discussion, it was noted that 326 proposals had been received concerning the budget bill, 31 of which were accepted in full or in part, 208 suggestions were provided with relevant explanations and only 87 turned out to be unacceptable.
The Government approved a procedure for the provision of student grants and State scholarships in public educational institutions of the Republic of Armenia conducting educational programs of elementary vocational or secondary special education, according to which students from the border or upland settlements will be granted benefits in full compensation of the tuition.
Since access to education is one of the components of the Government’s focus on poverty reduction, the Prime Minister stressed the importance of the decision and told the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science to raise the awareness of the affected students through mass media outlets.
The Government accepted the proposal on the signing of an agreement between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the Russian Federation on the operational terms of the Armenian-Russian (Slavic) University in Yerevan. Located in Armenia, the University an interstate institution of higher professional education and can get the status of a national research university of the Russian Federation. The teaching is conducted in Russian, together with compulsory instruction in the Armenian language.
The Government redistributed the 2013 State budget, allocating 12 million drams to the Ministry of Education and Science for another one-year license for Russian Game TV’s “What? Where? When” Project. The amount will be forwarded to Pee Art LLC under a contract of donation.
The Government decided to postpone the compulsory military service provided to resident of Yerevan, student of the London University College Emile Abrahamyan until the 2016 spring draft – study completion. Another resident of Yerevan - Vahan Hovhannesyan – who received his master's degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and attended a graduate school at Imperial College London, majoring in Computer studies, received an exemption from conscription for compulsory military service until autumn call 2017. onwards.
