Can, Jar and Pickle As Much as Possible in Preparation for Crisis that Awaits Us, Says Opposition MP

Armenia’s 2012 state budget isn’t even a survival budget, said Heritage Party MP Armen Martirosyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.

“This budget can be associated with the following Armenian saying: ‘You have nails, scratch your head.’ That is to say, everyone has to provide for themselves,” he said.

Weighing in on the “luxury tax” included in the 2012 budget, Martirosyan said it’s only a partial measure. In his opinion, it’s not right for luxury cars to be taxed but not luxury homes.

“There are houses in Armenia that are a hundred times more expensive than those luxury cars, and here too full measures have to be taken,” said the opposition MP.

Martirosyan stated that indirect taxes will comprise more than 50% of the new budget.

“This means that mostly it will be us who will be paying the taxes from our pockets — it won’t be from revenue or profit, but exclusively from our pockets,” he said.

In this regard, the deputy recalled a statement made by Vazgen Manukyan during his term as prime minister.

“As in the early 90s, when Vazgen Manukyan was prime minister, and we had to confront economic hardship, he advised homemakers to can, pickle and jar as much as they can that year. I believe that it would be just as honest and right for the government to make a similar appeal to the population — to store as much as possible — so that we may take the crisis that might arise lightly,” he said.