Action of protest against gas price hike continues in Yerevan

 Several dozens of participants in the action of protest against gas price hike moved from the building of the Armenian Government to the Public Services Regulatory Committee.

Head of the Committee Staff Mikael Soghomonyan met with the protesters. He said that they will study the application for revision of the gas tariff within 90 days and adopted a decision.  Asked why the Committee accepted the application for rise of the electric power tariff, Soghomonyan said that the applications are interconnected and must be studied simultaneously. However, no decision has been adopted on the gas tariff yet.

Earlier today, the Government of Armenia adopted a decision to subsidize the rise of the Russian gas tariff for Armenia by 30%, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said in the government that the gas monopolist in Armenia, ArmRusgasprom CJSC submitted an application to the Public Services Regulatory Committee for rise of the gas import tariffs to $270 per 1,000 cu m.

"I have sent a letter to the Chairman of the Committee informing that the Government will subsidize the new tariff by 30%," the prime minister said.

He also added that the Government will subsidize the rise of the gas tariff for the vulnerable families. Open public hearings will be held on the gas tariff, the prime minister said.


Wednesday, on May 15, the Public Services Regulatory Committee (PSRC) of Armenia has initiated revision of the electric power tariffs, PSRC press-service told ArmInfo.  The process was launched following forecasts of a growth of the gas tariffs for heating power plants, the AMD/USD exchange rate, the balance of electric power generation, and influence of some other factors in 2013-2014. The tariffs of electric power generation and services of energy companies of Armenia, as well as the electric power for final consumers will be revised.

To recall, ArmRusgasprom CJSC and its subsidiary Transgas LLC applied to the PSRC for revision of the current gas tariff for consumers using up to 10,000 cu m of gas monthly (mainly the population) from 132.00 drams inclusive of VAT per 1,000 cu m to 221,000 drams (a 67% tariff hike). By official statistics, in 2012 the share of electric power generation by heating power plants in total electric power generation, transmission and distribution (182.8 bln drams or $455.1 mln) totaled 45.1%. The share of HPPs in total power generation was 6.4% and that of the nuclear power plant is 9.8%. High-voltage power lines produce only 0.1% of total power generation, while power transmission and distribution totaled 38.6%.

At present, Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC, which is also a Russian asset, sells electric power to the population at the daily tariff of 30AMD per kWh and night tariff - 20AMD per 1kWh. Tariffs for the other final consumers are 17- 30 AMD/kWh.