Majority of citizens dissatisfied with proposed health tax: finance minister

We are trying not to be sharp in our viewpoints, considering that each viewpoint has right to exist, finance minister Atom Janjughazyan said, adding that they suggest moving with balanced approaches.

“On one hand we stated about readiness to take actions to trigger growth of the country’s competitiveness by paying a certain sum, reducing tax burden, on the other, it appears that we add additional burden by setting health tax,” the minister told the reporters today, asked why the finance ministry spoke against health tax.

“There is a perception that this burden is the burden of an employee or hired employee and not the employer, but in general it is a burden on the economy as the same hired employee instead of generating savings could make investments by forming potential of creating additional value,” he said, adding that while now it will appear that instead of this investment he/she makes investment in the health system.

“This is why we think that the issue must be subject for multisided discussion,” Janjughazyan said.

The minister also said that the citizens’ attitude may not be assessed as satisfied with the mentioned bill.

“The dissatisfaction is much more, perhaps, alternative variants should be discussed,” he said.

Asked whether the finance ministry has preferred threshold, Janjughazyan said the preferred threshold for the ministry is zero.

“The issue is not about the amount but the direction,” Janjughazyan said.