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Social spending also reduced

Politics
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Discussions on state budget for 2018 are going on at the NA Standing Commitees today. Gevorg Petrosyan, MP of Tsarukyan Alllience, announced that the social spending is reduced by 362 million drams. "People's social condition is getting worse. People do not live but survive. Why does the social spending reduce? Does it not contradict the RA Constitution, as the RA is a socialistic state, and people are important here?" Atom Janjughazyan, First Deputy Minister of Finance, said that yes, the costs were reduced but that did not contradict the Constitution. "This decrease is about 0.1% of the total allocations. If our welfare is conditioned only by social spending in our country, then  we will be condemned to failure. If our social condition has deteriorated, I would like to ask you how. The unemployment rate has dropped from 19% to 17.8%, the number of active workers has increased. What you say contains more emotion than justification. For example, the budget of agriculture has increased, which will improve the social condition." Gevorg Petrosyan continued: "The budget is not a sum of numbers, it is not an algebra textbook, but an article of the Constitution. This budget is considered to be a capital expenditure budget. That's the same thing as the father of the family says that from the next year we will make a major renovation at home, so we will not eat bread or wear clothes. It is wrong not to pay attention to it at all."