After the Constitutional Court's decision on declaring some provisions of the law on mandatory accumulative pension system anti-constitutional, the employers must demand that the State Revenue Committee give them back the funds transferred to the single account of the Armenian Finance Ministry over the past three months, MP from ARF Dashnaktsutyun Faction, economist Artsvik Minasyan said at a press conference on Wednesday.
According to him, some representatives of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) manipulate the Constitutional Court's decision, citing the concluding part of the verdict only, and try to hinder the return of the funds to the population. "From the moment of announcement of the Court's verdict, the employers no longer have to make pension payments. Moreover, from now on the pension payments will be made on the voluntary basis only", said Minasyan. He also stressed that if the State Revenue Committee refuses to give back the earlier transferred funds, the employers and employees can apply to court.
The economist added that on Thursday at the latest the Government must elaborate a mechanism to return the funds to the population. "A new situation has arisen after the Court's verdict and the Government must return the funds within a given time", he said.
On April 2 the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia cancelled the mandatory component of the accumulative pension system. Head of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Gagik Haroutiunyan read out the CC's 64-page verdict on 2 April. The Constitutional Court adopted a decision to recognize the law null and void in the parts that infringe the citizen's right to manage his own salary. The CC recognized invalid all the disputable articles of the law, as they are interconnected. The CC announced 30 September the deadline for the Government and the Parliament to bring the law in line with the requirements made. The decision of the CC comes into force at the moment of announcement.
However, Head of the Parliamentary Committee for State and Legal Affairs David Harutyunyan has told ArmInfo that the anti-constitutional provisions of the law on accumulative pensions will remain in force till September 30 to avoid a legal vacuum.