PM Gakharia addresses Parliament of Georgia
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Thursday, May 28
The Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia addressed the Parliament on 27th of May, with a report on how the government was handling the country in the event of a state of emergency over the Coronavirus pandemic. The PM answered the questions asked by the deputies as well.
According to the PM, all those who will take out a mortgage loan until the end of the year will receive a state subsidy, thus helping the construction sector as well as citizens. This is a novelty that has been voiced during the parliament visit, though it’s yet unknown what percentage will be covered by the state in this program.
Gakharia stated that the government will allocate ?150 million to satisfy the IDPs. “It will also be a direct support to the construction sector so that their resilience is strong and the tragedy that happened after the 2008 crisis, when many families in Georgia had to pay their last income for flats, and they are still on the streets today, is not repeated,” Gakharia said in a speech to parliament.
According to official statistics , 283,271 IDPs from Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region, more than 90,000 families, are registered in Georgia. Of these, only 40,000 families are provided with long-term housing, and more than 50,000 families are waiting for an apartment.
Gakharia, also said that 1.2 million families in Georgia have benefited from the utility bills. According to the government's decision, the population was granted benefits for 3 months due to the Coronavirus pandemic. All households that consumed 200 kilowatts of electricity per month were exempt from electricity, water, and cleaning bills. In addition, the benefit was extended to the consumption of natural gas - a family that consumed less than 200 cubic meters of gas was exempt from paying the fee.
The PM announced that seasonally employed people will receive financial assistance, whose official salary is fixed.
According to Gakharia, in order to receive ?1,200, seasonal employees should have fixed income during the last 6 months of 2019. Besides that, all employees who have been paid at least once during 3 months before the 1st of April and have lost their jobs or are on unpaid leave will receive a total of 1,200 for 6 months.
The PM announced that budget revenues will be 1 billion 800 million less this year. According to Gakharia, the government will reduce budget expenditures by 600 million: 300 million are current expenditures and 300 million - capital expenditures.
According to the first estimate of the International Monetary Fund, Georgia's annual economic growth rate will decrease by 4%.
Giorgi Gakharia states that Georgia is the first country to complete negotiations in the face of a pandemic and economic crisis, and agreed on a new program with the IMF.
"This meant simplifying the work with other donors, which was confirmed in 2-3 weeks and the Georgian government received 1 billion 500 million donations from donors," Gakharia said, adding that the government had already started using some of the money.
He also spoke of attracting tourists, mentioning quick PCR testing that will be available in Georgia. According to him, another strong detail should be added to the tourism of Georgia - the status of the "Covid Free" zone.
Georgia has been waiting for tourists since July 1st. According to the Minister of Economy, about 20 airlines have expressed a desire to fly to Georgia.
The PM also noted that the crisis has shown us that the country should not be dependent solely on tourism, but this doesn’t mean that we should stop tourism now. He said tourism is a low-capital, relatively fast-growing sector that has a very large transfer power.
According to the PM, the relevant agency of the Ministry of Health has been instructed that the country will be able to conduct 10,000 PCR tests during the day by the end of September. Speaking to the government in front of the parliament on the government's management strategy, he said that an average of 2500 tests are conducted daily, and that this number is expected to increase to 3000 in the near future. According to him, at the initial stage only 72-75 tests of the gold standard were conducted:
“When we talk about the fact that we will be one of the first countries to be able to open tourism and activate the economy, we are taking responsibility for the readiness of the healthcare system and laboratory networks,” Gakharia said.
Next PM answered the question of the Chairman of the European Georgia faction Otar Kakhidze concerning the fact that ?772 million has been forcibly accumulated in the pension fund and has not been returned to the population.
Gakharia answered that Pension reform is the most important thing for the country's financial stability and the position of opposing sides has always been that ‘the gov’t would spend people’s money during the first crisis’. He added, that unlike forecasts, that money is depreciating, the average annual growth in the placement of this money is 14%. “Comparing the difference between the exchange rates, the transfer of the pension fund into foreign currency is economically completely nonsensical,” PM said, adding that we get paid in Lari, not in dollars, therefore the pension fund is untouchable.
The prime minister says the country does not have the natural resources to accumulate tens of billions of reserves.
"The pension fund will be a guarantee for socially vulnerable people to have elementary protection during such turbulent crises in old age,” The PM explained, accusing the opposition of populism, because they tell people that all these millions go to the state, not mentioning that in addition to their money, there’s also the money of the companies and the state, which is the money of the country. Head of the gov’t added that the inability to assess the depth of the crisis or to predict further development also call for not spending money from pension funds.
European Georgia has registered a bill in parliament to write off a ?3,000 fine imposed on citizens for violating the state of emergency. MP Sergi Kapanadze said that a total of more than ?25 million GEL has been fined. According to Kapanadze, they applied to the government last week with a proposal to write off the fines, and since there was no reaction, they decided to initiate a bill.
PM said the government is not appealing to parliament to reconsider the fines imposed for violating the state of emergency. He noted that about 9,000 such cases had been reported during the period. Gakharia explained that the fine is a restraining order for the executive branch, that has been used quite effectively, especially given that the recommendations didn’t work; therefore, the government will not call on anyone to cancel these fines, because the restraining force will not work without these tools.
Asked about the terms of the agreement reached between the government and the opposition on March 8th, namely Giorgi Rurua's release from prison, PM told MP Elene Khoshtaria that the country's top priorities at the moment were ‘very transparent’ elections and fair competition for constitutional change.
“We all need to make these legislative changes together,” he said, adding that they would never agree on the issue of political arrests.
"Unfortunately, this is a fundamental problem that should not be postponed until the future of our country, and soon it will be clear and sorted out,” said Gakharia.
According to him, there are no plans to limit the number of observers in the parliamentary elections and the government will do its best to support their activities. He also announced that there will be epidemiological tests, distance, transportation and everything that will be needed and there will be no postponement, unless there’s a global explosion. Gakharia added that he is confident there will be the most observers in the October 2020 parliamentary elections.
