The News in Brief
Thursday, December 14
Senior Lawmakers Voice Support to Mandatory Gender Quotas Bill
Senior lawmakers from three parliamentary parties of Georgia, including the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG), the European Georgia and the United National Movement, voiced their support to the mandatory gender quotas bill, which, if approved, would set mandatory quotas for women to help increase the number of female members in the Parliament and municipality councils..
GDDG’s Eka Beselia, who chairs the committee for legal issues, said in her remarks at the conference that the bill was “timely”, adding that the tentative date for its adoption would be early spring of 2018.
Georgian Dream parliamentary majority leader Archil Talakvadze hailed the bill, saying, “We believe that the mechanism of quotas is the best decision in a mid-term perspective in order to increase women’s participation in the Parliament, and politics in general.”
Opposition United National Movement member Tina Bokuchava also expressed her support to the initiative, saying that the introduction of mandatory quotas “as a temporary measure” was necessary and the bill would be supported by “a majority, if not all [UNM] faction members.”
Her words were echoed by European Georgia’s Elene Khoshtaria said she was “personally against quotas as a woman” as it “is demeaning both ideologically and psychologically,” but promised “not to generalize” her personal position on the matter and added that the party “would very actively and seriously consider” supporting the bill.
Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, who also addressed the conference, endorsed the bill as well. Kobakhidze said in his remarks that the financial incentives that current political party regulations envision to promote women’s’ representation “are realistically, rather ineffective,” and that it was “necessary to think of other measures to encourage women’s participation in politics.”
“A mandatory quota system would be the best measure…that, if approved, the bill will increase women’s representation in the Parliament at least to 25% that will be a significant progress from the current figure of 15%,” Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze noted.
MP Ada Marshania of the Alliance of Patriots, who also attended the conference, said in the Q&A session that the faction would also endorse the legislative proposal. (Civil.ge)
Payment of Property Tax on Cars in Georgia to Start from 2018
(TBILISI) -- Car owners in Georgia will soon start paying property tax for the vehicles, according to local media reports.
Families with an annual income of 40,000-100,000 GEL will have to pay no less than 0.05 percent and no more than 0.2 percent of the vehicle cost, while families with an annual income of over 100,000 GEL will have to pay no less than 0.8 percent and no more than 1 percent of the vehicle cost. (Agenda.ge)
Senior lawmakers from three parliamentary parties of Georgia, including the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG), the European Georgia and the United National Movement, voiced their support to the mandatory gender quotas bill, which, if approved, would set mandatory quotas for women to help increase the number of female members in the Parliament and municipality councils..
GDDG’s Eka Beselia, who chairs the committee for legal issues, said in her remarks at the conference that the bill was “timely”, adding that the tentative date for its adoption would be early spring of 2018.
Georgian Dream parliamentary majority leader Archil Talakvadze hailed the bill, saying, “We believe that the mechanism of quotas is the best decision in a mid-term perspective in order to increase women’s participation in the Parliament, and politics in general.”
Opposition United National Movement member Tina Bokuchava also expressed her support to the initiative, saying that the introduction of mandatory quotas “as a temporary measure” was necessary and the bill would be supported by “a majority, if not all [UNM] faction members.”
Her words were echoed by European Georgia’s Elene Khoshtaria said she was “personally against quotas as a woman” as it “is demeaning both ideologically and psychologically,” but promised “not to generalize” her personal position on the matter and added that the party “would very actively and seriously consider” supporting the bill.
Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, who also addressed the conference, endorsed the bill as well. Kobakhidze said in his remarks that the financial incentives that current political party regulations envision to promote women’s’ representation “are realistically, rather ineffective,” and that it was “necessary to think of other measures to encourage women’s participation in politics.”
“A mandatory quota system would be the best measure…that, if approved, the bill will increase women’s representation in the Parliament at least to 25% that will be a significant progress from the current figure of 15%,” Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze noted.
MP Ada Marshania of the Alliance of Patriots, who also attended the conference, said in the Q&A session that the faction would also endorse the legislative proposal. (Civil.ge)
Payment of Property Tax on Cars in Georgia to Start from 2018
(TBILISI) -- Car owners in Georgia will soon start paying property tax for the vehicles, according to local media reports.
Families with an annual income of 40,000-100,000 GEL will have to pay no less than 0.05 percent and no more than 0.2 percent of the vehicle cost, while families with an annual income of over 100,000 GEL will have to pay no less than 0.8 percent and no more than 1 percent of the vehicle cost. (Agenda.ge)