site.btaBudget Extension Bill Heads for Final Debate in Parliament

Amendments to the budget extension law are expected to go to a second reading in the National Assembly chamber on Wednesday, before MPs leave for the election campaign for the April 19 parliamentary vote.

National Assembly Chair Raya Nazaryan said Tuesday the budget extension bill and the legislation under the Recovery and Resilience Plan linked to the fourth and fifth payments were among Parliament’s priorities.

She added that reports were expected from the Budget and Finance Committee on the budget extension bill, as well as from the Committee on Labour, Social and Demographic Policy and the Committee on Transport and Communications, so they could be added to the agenda and debated at second reading.

The amendments to the budget extension law were approved at second reading by the Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday. Under the current version, the extension budget is in force until the end of March, and the amendments extend its effect until a regular 2026 budget is adopted.

Nazaryan said Thursday would be parliament’s last sitting, but that did not mean an extraordinary sitting could not be convened during the recess in urgent cases or with the signatures of one-fifth of MPs.

According to a draft programme of the National Assembly published on the institution’s website, MPs will hold their last regular plenary sittings on Wednesday and Thursday.

The election campaign for the April 19 parliamentary elections starts at 00:00 on March 20, under the timetable adopted by the Central Election Commission. Under parliament’s rules of procedure, from the start of the election campaign for parliamentary elections until the newly elected National Assembly is convened, no regular plenary sittings or committee meetings are held.

The draft programme for the final two regular plenary sittings also includes first-reading debates on amendments to the Railway Transport Act, the Non-Profit Legal Entities Act and the Act on the Administrative Regulation of the Production of Optical Discs and Matrices.