Several issues on ensuring road traffic safety discussed with NGOs

On 16 December, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arman Tatoyan received representatives of "Organising of Passenger Transportation in Armenia", "Centre for Protection of the Rights of Individual Taxi Drivers", "Support to Taxi Services", "Union of Transporters of Armenia" and "League for the Protection of Drivers" non-governmental organisations. During the meeting, the representatives of the non-governmental organisations raised several concerns that were under the jurisdiction of not only the Ministry of Justice, but also several other government agencies. Touching upon the legislative package recommended by the Government of the Republic of Armenia for ensuring road traffic safety, they expressed concerns about the introduction of fines and a scoring system for taxi drivers parking in prohibited areas. The Deputy Minister expressed willingness to discuss all the concerns and suggestions of the NGO representatives, as well as mentioned that the Government of the Republic of Armenia has tried to develop mechanisms that will regulate the sector and will meet the demands of drivers and all interested parties as much as possible. Touching upon the scoring system, he clarified that a driver should be fined in the amount of AMD 300,000 so that he or she can collect 600 points because one point of the minimum salary is counted as two points. According to the Deputy Minister, this implies that, on the average, a driver should commit almost 120 violations in the course of one year. However, if the driver punctually pays the fixed fine the points set for that violation are reduced by half. The Deputy Minister also added that this regulation envisages the application of the institute of warnings, and no fine is envisaged for violations not committed intentionally and not dangerous to the society. Moreover, there are violations that do not envisage a fine, where eliminated on the spot. At the end of the meeting, the Deputy Minister assured that the concerns and suggestions will be presented to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, as well as to the Working Group for the development of drafts and will be further discussed.