YEREVAN, January 9. /ARKA/. At a meeting on Thursday, the Armenian government decided to extend the cashback program for non-cash purchases for pensioners and beneficiaries until December 30, 2025.
Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan reported that in the 2.5 years since the program’s launch, the volume of non-cash payments amounted to 171.7 billion drams, with 15.2 billion drams returned to citizens. As of November, the number of beneficiaries stood at 278,000, and it is expected that, based on applications submitted in December and January, the total will exceed 300,000 people.
The minister also mentioned that, as of November, the average cashback amount was 4,190 drams. He reminded that starting from September 2024, the cashback percentage increased from 10% to 12%, although this increase does not apply to utility bill payments.
Since July 1, 2022, pensioners and benefit recipients who use cards from Armenian partner banks in this program receive a cashback of 10% of the total amount spent in the previous month, for utility payments and non-cash purchases. However, the cashback is capped at 5,000 drams per month. The funds are returned to bank cards by the 25th of the following month. ($1 = 396.47 drams).