Those who serve for cash
While the society and political powers are waiting till the decree of the Constitutional Court on the government-proposed pension fund law on March 28, the Central Bank has come up with an announcement which demolished all expectations of the society from the Constitutional Court. The statement issued by the Central Bank says that the Constitutional Court’s decision of January 24 does not mean that employers are free of the responsibility to make payments to the compulsory pension fund, which means that they will still have to make such payments after the CC’s decision on March 28. “The Central Bank states that the provision on collecting funds for the compulsory pension fund are not suspended, and reminds that the issue is still under the Constitutional Court’s consideration for the purpose of defining its consistency with the Constitution. Accordingly, the Central Bank calls on the society to refrain from various interpretations of the Constitutional Court’s decision as in case of satisfying this petition probably the consequences for the participants of the compulsory pension fund payment will be heavier as they will have to pay a lump sum for the time they have not paid,” reads the statement of the Central Bank.
On the one hand, by calling on people not to interpret the expected decision of the CC, the Central Bank is interpreting that expectation itself as it introduces their policies as an imperative, and on the other hand, the CB makes everyone understand that they should not hope for any better solution after the Constitutional Court’s decree (such statement could be issued by other governmental entities, for example, by the water management board or any other entity). It is also a message to employers that they should make such payments voluntarily if they don’t want to have problems in the future. Logically the government would do better not to do anything in this period in order not to provoke the tense situation. However, apparently the need money urgently, and moreover, they need it cash. This is the reason why they decided not to wait till March for the sake of five per cent fund payment during these two months (approximately AMD 20-25 million). Even the possibility of having twice more resistance in two months did not stop the government from this decision. Two months are too long for the authorities of Armenia.
Armenia lives a situational life, and decisions are made according to the current situation, thus 20-25 million drams is really a good reason for a government that looks at things as if everything is money. This is a challenge thrown by the government to the society that is against the pension fund and the opposition. Maybe they do this as they believe they have no problem with such non-governmental powers (yesterday none of those powers participated in a march for the cause). This decision is again made in violence of the Constitution and the institute of constitutional right in general. The recent statement of the Central Bank came to remind this as they made people understand that any attempt to restore constitutional order is constitutional. By the way, this thesis has been numerously spoken by an active oppositionist, who now serves at the president’s office.
