YEREVAN, October 6. /ARKA/. By a vote of 59 to 22 the Armenian parliament has passed today in the first reading an amendment to the Tax Code, which revokes a provision of the law that allows citizens to use their individual income tax to pay off interests on their mortgage loans, making them actually interest free. 

If approved in the second and final reading the amended law would apply in the first stage to the capital Yerevan.

According to Deputy Minister of Finance Arman Poghosyan, the amendment is meant to support proportional development of regions outside the capital city. An MP from the ruling Civil Contract party Babken Tunyan explained that the amended law will be applied in Yerevan in phases that will take 3 years.

A number of MPs expressed concern over the amendment.. An MP from the opposition Hayastan (Armenia) alliance Vahe Hakobyan suggested applying the  amendment to the first and second zones of Yerevan, and delaying its application to the third, fourth and other zones.

"A drastic change in the law and I consider it a drastic change, without a specific plan of actions to back  the development of regions is wrong today," he said.

Earlier, the Armenian Association of Developers expressed deep concern over this change, saying it would dramatically affect the demand for housing in the primary market and, as a result, would affect the  construction sector. According to it, that in turn, would  affect budget revenues, result in job cuts and  lower economic activity. --0--