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Lawmakers from Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract faction on Tuesday rejected a request to put an opposition-drafted bill on amendments to the Tax Code on the agenda of the four-day parliament session.

The bill, introduced by opposition Hayastan faction MP Aghvan Vardanyan, would exempt the printing of books and the import of necessary materials for it from the value added tax in an effort to boost literacy in the country.

The lawmaker said that the draft law was not approved by the Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sports as the ruling Civil Contract faction MPs abstained from voting.

Civil Contract faction MP Taguhi Ghazaryan argued that currently there are privileges in the book publishing sphere, adding some of the books, including children's books and pedagogical manuals, are exempt from taxes.

She stated that the second part of the bill proposing to exempt raw materials for book printing from taxes is problematic, asking the authors to review it.

The bill was not put on the parliament agenda with 20 votes for and 60 against.