A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government approved the package of bills of the Republic of Armenia on making amendments and additions to the Law "On Motor Transport" and related laws. The need for the adoption of bills is due to the purpose of filling the existing legislative gaps in the field of passenger transportation in the Republic of Armenia and preventing illegal transportation. In order to solve the existing problems, it is proposed to regulate the activities of organizations that register and tranfer passenger orders through electronic platforms. It is proposed to define the activity of registering and transferring passenger orders through electronic platforms as an activity subject to notification. For e-platform passenger transportation services, it’s proposed to establish a state fee for each transportation, as well as a requirement to provide an electronic receipt for payment of the order. Measures of administrative liability in case of violations of regulations are defined.

Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the implementation of the improvements envisaged by the bills and in that context referred to the already made decisions. "First, we made a de jure decision about taxi services at the airport, now we have to have taxi services there that meet a certain standard. Next, we established a bus route from the airport to Yerevan with the support of Yerevan Municipality, and both are very important issues, including from the point of view of our country's image."

At today's Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister also touched upon the news related to the Upper Lars checkpoint and passenger transportation. "We are pleased to note that our long dialogue with our Russian colleagues has brought a concrete result," said Nikol Pashinyan and asked Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan how much the capacity of the Upper Lars checkpoint has increased and whether we can say that the queuing problem has been solved by this. "From the end of 2021, during 2022 and with the results of this year, the number of 11 lanes at the checkpoint has become 39. It is a very big and very important change. In 2020-2021, the record was 300 trucks per day, today it is about 1500. Moreover, as of yesterday, there was a free lane for 409 cars. 24 is for passenger cars so that to ensure comfort for citizens. On the Russian side, there is one lane for small cars, which is also important, and two more lanes for buses. This is a solution that should not cause any obstacles for Armenian cargo. It is impossible not to produce absolutely positive results by going from 11 to 39 lanes. Moreover, it is also important that by the end of 2024, the number of lanes in Georgia will reach 15 from 9", answered Mher Grigoryan.

Nikol Pashinyan noted that this issue was always on the agenda of his discussions with the Russian President and the Russian Prime Minister. "I want to thank both President Putin and Prime Minister Mishustin for their consistent work on this matter. It was also on our working agenda with the Prime Minister of Georgia, and I want to thank Prime Minister Garibashvili. I know that very intensive work is going on. There is also tunnel construction. Of course, this is also related to global logistics rearrangements," the Prime Minister emphasized.

In order to continue the process of providing refunds to pensioners from non-cash payments, the Government adopted a decision. Based on the results of the previous period of implementation of the measure, it was considered appropriate to extend the period of validity of the public-private social interaction measure to provide refunds to pensioners from non-cash payments until December 31, 2023.

The Government has submitted recommendations regarding the package of bills of the Republic of Armenia "On Amendments to the Law on Gambling Games, Internet Gambling Games and Casinos" and on amendments to the Law "On Lotteries". The bills propose to regulate the process of depositing money into gaming accounts. "The bills envisage establishing, in particular, that in the case of online gambling games, the special game account can be refilled exclusively through bank accounts, including card accounts belonging to the given player. And secondly, it is forbidden to deposit and withdraw funds to the accounts of participants of totalizers in cash," Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan noted.