Irakli Gharibashvili – I raised the issue in the team not to deduct these 70 million fines to the already poor population

Many people have intentionally or unintentionally had a violated wearing a facemask, possibly while moving, and have accumulated fines. The amount of these fines was quite large – 70 million. I then raised the issue in the team and said that we should not deprive the already impoverished population of this 70 million” – the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili said in Tetritskaro at the presentation of the Georgian Dream Tetritskaro mayoral candidate Giorgi Tsiklauri. 

As the head of government pointed out, in 2020 people did not know these rules, but now everyone knows these rules and wants to follow them. “In recent days, there has been an uproar over why the Prime Minister and the government have written off the fines that accrued to the people in 2020. As you know, it was news then, we were all shocked, so to speak, and many people willingly or unwillingly violated the rules. The amount of these fines was quite large – 70 million.

The answer to all the critics, why not help our people who did not know these rules and regulations in 2020 and broke them, but now that we know how these rules work and how important it is, we ask everyone to follow these rules. But they do not seem to want to understand.The motivation was that the already impoverished population should be helped by us. We should not take 70 million and it was very natural and reasonable in this situation” – Irakli Gharibashvili said.