"Fact" daily writes:
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs proposes to make changes and additions to the government's decision N 2339-L of December 28, 2023.
The decision defines the measure of providing refunds to pensioners from non-cash payments, according to which, the refund payable in a given month is calculated in the amount of 12 percent of the non-cash purchases and payment transactions made in the month preceding that month.
At the same time, the refund amount cannot exceed 6000 drams. At the same time, the decision stipulates the provision of cashless payments to pensioners until December 31, 2025.
Now it is necessary to consider the increase of pensions with the option of increasing the amount of repayment from non-cash transactions. This event has been implemented since July 2022. In August 2025, the average monthly number of beneficiaries was 348,433, and the average monthly back payment calculated for one beneficiary was AMD 4,085. The expenses for the back payment of January-August 2025 amounted to 11.8 billion drams.
According to the government, with the option of increasing the amount of refunds provided to pensioners from non-cash payments, the amount of pensions will increase, extending the period of the measure until December 31, 2026 inclusive.
Beneficiaries of the project are given the opportunity to receive a larger amount of cashback payments for the purchase of goods and (or) services. For this purpose, it is proposed to increase the 12 percent applied to the amount of non-cash payments for the calculation of the back payment, setting it at 20 percent, and to increase the maximum amount of the back payment from 6,000 AMD to 10,000 AMD.
The authors of the project believe that as a result of the change in the amount of the back payment, the amount of pensions of pensioners receiving cashless pensions and making cashless purchases will increase by 3000-4000 drams.
For that purpose, it will be necessary to allocate approximately 14 billion drams in 2026, while if the general pensions were to be increased by the same amount, twice as many funds would have to be allocated.
In case of the adoption of the draft decision, the average monthly amount of pension will be around 56,000 drams, and the number of beneficiaries of the event is predicted to be 412,000 people.
