The intergovernmental conflicts have become obvious during the four-day session of the National Assembly. Was it the change of the building or the conflicts that caused the conduct of the session in a not quite “engaged” manner. This time the chairman of the Republican faction Galust Sahakyan doubled his efforts in order to bring in some MPs to the NA hall to participate in the session. Just like in the previous session this time as well the NA chair Hovik Abrahamyan wasn’t in the mood at all. And his habit of joking during the sessions wasn’t demonstrated this time. Perhaps the reason was that the session was held in the government building, which is headed by prime minister Tigran Sargsyan, which was making Abrahamyan feel uncomfortable. He was also participating quite rarely in the sessions just like the MPs. The main burden of holding sessions and moderating them was on the shoulders of the NA deputy-chair Arevik Petrosyan. The other NA deputy-chair Samvel Nikoyan would also rarely be in the hall. Therefore both the MPs and the journalists resembled this four-day session a cartoon. The only “locomotive” of the session was perhaps the discussion of the bill aimed at the changes to the law on radio and television, which once again made the conflicts within the government more evident. Moreover, this bill had been discussed for three days in the session hall of the government. At the end of the session Hovik Abrahamyan made a speech and as the MPs would say he slammed on the government. He read his speech from the podium, according to which he had implied that before revising the law, which anticipates the transition of analog channels to digital, it was necessary that a legal act package was developed, which would provide the relations of transitions from the analog to the digital. In the meantime, the presented bill, in the opinion of the NA MP, although edited the whole law but didn’t resolve the basic issues related to the digitizing process. Abrahamyan considered the role and functions of the regulating body “unclear both before the whole process and digitization and afterward.” However, the presented draft, in the words of the NA MP, even the functions of the national commission of radio and television and the ministry of economy are worth of being edited and revised as well. According to the draft, starting from July 20, 2010 a tender will be announced for 18 frequencies. “Today 22 frequencies work. And for the marz translation only one frequency exists in the case when there are 7 TV companies in Lori. After all, all the transmission companies are informed only days before the bid that they have to compete for fewer frequencies,” stated Abrahamyan. After concretely criticizing this draft Abrahamyan criticized the government by saying that the latter has made it regular by submitting rapidly and quickly prepared drafts. These drafts are not being discussed in the commissions before passing those on the MPs. Only a day ago a Prosperous Armenia MP Naira Zohrabyan spoke about this in her speech. Yesterday in the NA they were speaking that the draft was another occasion for Abrahamyan to slam on the government. Some of the MPs remembered another bill on the law on local taxes submitted by the government, which was as well sharply criticized by H. Abrahamyan. Let us remember that the government has originally offered to define 10 types of taxes but after the first reading those were reduced and only two were left. “Mr. Terteryan, I am generally against the sale tax. It should be dismissed. Such a tax cannot exist. So Mr. Terteryan whatever I propose please take into account. So that when we discuss this in 1 days please clarify these approaches before the voting. This would be useful for our colleagues to decide whether to vote for or against this draft. The lands for construction and inexpedient lands… This should be taken out, Mr. Terteryan. The tax on placing advertisement for the objects of the community property should be canceled. All the taxes of the agricultural importance should be excluded… Please pass all this on to the prime minister,” during the discussion of the draft said H. Abrahamyan to V. Terteryan . As a result, during the second and final discussion of this draft the government has presented 2 out of the original 10 tax types. By comparing this draft yesterday the NA MPs would mention that this sharp criticism of Abrahamyan was preliminarily agreed with Armen Gevorgyan, deputy prime minister. They say that the latter is also from the team of Abrahamyan. And let us remember that Abrahamyan used to occupy this position in the past. And similar to the discussion of the law on local taxes Abrahamyan said that they’d vote on behalf of the draft of the changes to the law on radio and television on the condition that during the third reading in the next week the government presents the draft to the NA commissions so that the latter would thoroughly discuss the draft. Maybe this time as well the government will accept certain compromises. The deputy minister of economy Mushegh Tovmasyan promised to discuss the concerns raised by the MPs. And by the single speech of Abrahamyan the government’s intention to pass the draft without discussion in the commissions didn’t come true.
