“When the draft budget for December 2026 was being discussed, it was not planned to increase pensions. Moreover, when the Prime Minister was asked whether there would be an increase, both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs stated that this was impossible, as the state budget did not have such resources. When the pre-election period arrives, on the day of the announced elections, three months before the elections, the government makes a decision to increase pensions, containing approximately $80 million in additional expenses, without specifying the sources that have increased in the budget, without coming to the National Assembly, and without obtaining the National Assembly's consent. This concerns about 600,000 citizens with voting rights, whose pensions have increased by 10,000 drams,” said Edgar Ghazaryan, a deputy from the Strong Armenia faction, while questioning Liana Manukyan, nominated by their faction for the position of chair of the Permanent Committee on Financial and Budgetary Affairs.
“I want to know how you will assess this process, which has been qualified as pre-election bribery, within the framework of the logic of the law on the budgetary system, the logic of medium-term expenditure programs, as well as within the framework of the development, adoption, and amendment of the draft state budget.”
In response, Manukyan said, “We are positive about the increase in pensions. We support raising the pensions of our grandmothers and grandfathers, but since this was part of their 2021 pre-election program, yes, we may have reasonable doubts that this was not raised during this time to be increased during the pre-election period for some dividend purposes. As for adding a large expenditure item to the budget, as someone who has been planning the budget for many years, I find it a bit difficult to imagine such large expenditure items being added without prior planning. I believe that the work of this commission will allow us to understand what sources have financed this.”
