Armenian authorities agree to forgive fines for drivers

On July 4, the Armenian government approved the idea of the police to forgive fines accrued by drivers for violating the traffic rules. The initiative of the authorities astonished the drivers who paid fines in due time.

On July 4, the Armenian government approved the bill "On Amnesty of a number of administrative fines applied", proposed by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on the initiative of the Armenian police. Artak Zeinalyan, Armenian Minister of Justice, has noted that the total amount of fines that fall under the amnesty reaches 13.3 billion drams (27.5 million US dollars). These are the penalties accrued by drivers in the period from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2017, regardless of their citizenship or nationality.

"If citizens have not paid fines to this day, it means they have no financial opportunity. And the government considers that senseless to impose new penalties on those citizens," Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the meeting.

"It's a very interesting decision," Armenian resident Ruben Muradyan commented on his Facebook page. And he also wrote: "See what happens: if you, like me, paid fines in due time, then you, like me, are law-abiding fools, since the right people cheated state, but it will forgive them."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 5, 2018 at 01:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.