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At December 9 regular sitting the parliament in the first reading debated the legislative package on Making Addenda to the Law on the RA Budgetary System and on Making Addendum to the Law on Local Self-Government. As the RA Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Hovhannes Harutyunyan has informed, the aim of the initiative is the creation of the necessary legislative basis for the increase of budgetary opportunities to develop stable and continuous development of the communities. It is proposed to make contributions from 2% royalty paid to the state budget in the financial year by royalty paying mining company and to distribute them between the affected communities of the operating mines (50/50) by the affected community of the given mining company.

It is also proposed to give opportunity to the community to direct the distributed community royalty to the additional environmental expenditures and other capital expenditures, as well as set an additional separate publication of the report on the community royalty expenditures distributed to the communities to provide the transparency of the use of the distributed royalties.

The member of the Standing Committee on the Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environment Sergey Bagratyan has assessed positive the initiative and has noted that it is especially important in terms of developing the enlarged communities. According to the deputy, about 45bln royalty will be entered into the state budget, and its 2% - 900mln AMD will be distributed to the affected communities.

The law will enter into force after being completely passed from January 1, 2023