Deputy Minister of Transport: increasing the cost of liquefied gas and gasoline will not lead to an increase in the tariff for public transport

ArmInfo. Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies of Armenia Arman Khachatryan on January 23 at the hearings in the parliament on the "Causes of rising prices for certain types of goods and opportunities to mitigate the consequences of this" responsibly stated that the price for public transport will not be increased because of the increase cost of liquefied gas and gasoline. According to him, about 80% of the vehicles operating in Armenia operate on liquefied gas, and its price since early 2018 has risen from 190 drams to 210, to the level of 2015. A rise in the price of gasoline should also not lead to a rise in the price of public transport tariffs, since most transport companies do not use gasoline and diesel fuel. Proceeding from this, according to the deputy head of the Ministry of Transport, for today it is not necessary to expect a tariff increase. "Can the existing processes create inflationary pressures and lead to an increase in the tariff for transportation?" I will answer briefly that no, they can not, "concluded Arman Khachatryan. According to the SCPEC monitoring data, the price of 1 liter of gasoline since January 1 has increased by 20 drams, 1 liter of diesel fuel - by 60 drams, and 1 cubic meter of compressed gas by 20 drams. So, since January 2018, the excise tax on gasoline imports is 40,000 drams against the early 25,000 drams (per 1 ton). At the same time, the amount of excise tax and VAT increased from 120 thousand drams to 135 thousand drams, which, in turn, affected the final price. At the same time, until 2018 import and sale of diesel fuel were not subject to VAT, and the amount of excise tax was not less than 35 thousand drams for 1 ton. Since January, the excise tax has decreased, amounting to 13 thousand drams. However, along with this, VAT taxation was added, which led to a rise in price of a liter of diesel fuel by 60 drams. As for compressed gas, the excise tax increased by 16670 drams - from 8830 drams to 25 thousand drams. Plus the amount of VAT, which led to a rise in price of a total of 20 thousand drams.