Turkmen leader orders scrapping of benefits for population
MOSCOW. June 7 (Interfax) - Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow deems the current system of social benefits for republican residents inefficient and is suggesting abolishing it.
The president issued this statement on the eve of a government meeting, the country's State News Agency reported.
"It is an apparent fact that the system of benefits has currently become completely inefficient, something that we have already and repeatedly spoken about. Therefore, Mr. Khodzhamammedov [Deputy Prime Minister Byashimmyrat Khodzhamammedov], I order you to prepare your proposals to annul all benefits shortly, so that benefits might be granted not to all, but only those who really need social aid," the news agency quoted the head of state as saying.
The first Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov introduced benefits for citizens in the country in 1993, in keeping with which they began to receive water, gas and electric power supplies free of charge.
