YEREVAN, August 1. /ARKA/. Out of the 15,000 citizens in Armenia who applied for a government-designed support program, 3,686 with bad loans have received it, said Daniel Azatyan, the head of the Union of Banks of Armenia (UBA), at a press conference today.
“In total, 220,000 people in Armenia have bad loans (over a year old). The total debt amounts to 180 billion drams. The program is available to citizens with a cumulative loan amount of no more than 1 million drams,” Azatyan said at Friday’s press conference.
The program launched in February of this year and will be in effect for a year.
Regarding the possibility of setting a negative precedent and encouraging bad faith on the part of creditors, Azatyan noted that the loans will be repaid one way or another and that only a certain portion of the fines will be written off.
“The program is designed so that the situation will not repeat itself,” Azatyan said.
Previously, it was reported that the Armenian government would allocate 205 million drams to continue the program and stimulate the economic activity of individuals with bad loans.
Support is provided to individual borrowers whose loans have been classified as bad for three or more years, provided that the debt on the principal amount does not exceed one million drams or the equivalent in foreign currency.
Beneficiaries are provided financial support equivalent to 100% of the income tax calculated from their salary and other income (including that received under civil contracts). These funds are used to pay off bad credit debt.
Support is provided for a period of no more than 24 months, starting from the first day of the month following recognition of the citizen as beneficiary. Support ends when the bad loan is fully repaid, support is terminated for reasons established by the decision, or the obligation is terminated for reasons provided by law.-0-
