The Government's statement that the gas supplied to Armenia is the cheapest in the region is absurd, Artsvik Minasyan, MP from ARF Dashnaktsutyun, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Minasyan said that since Armenia has handed over more than 80% of energy capacities to Russia, one should take into account the price at which the gas reaches the consumers, not the price the gas is sold at on the border. "If we look at the problem from this point of view, the highest gas tariff is offered to Armenia. The tariff for Armenia is higher than the one for Georgia", he said. Minasyan also assured that the amount of gas consumed in Armenia is only 2-2.5% of the gas consumed in the CIS. He thinks that this small figure cannot seriously affect the financial condition of Gazprom. The economist also advised the authorities to think about nationalization of ArmRusgasprom CJSC.
The MP is not inclined to consider the rise in gas tariffs from the political viewpoint. However, if the gas price is connected with a political haggle between Armenia and Russia, official Yerevan should refuse such a strategic partner. "This will mean that Russia has launched a program "Armenia without Armenians"; subsequently, we
don't need such an ally", he said.
Following the rise of the Russian gas tariff for Armenia from the current $180 per 1,000 cu m to $270, ArmRusgasprom applied to the Public Services Regulatory Commission for increasing the gas tariff for the population by 67.4% - from the current 132,000 drams to 221,000 drams per 1000 cu m, and for the large consumers by 61.3% - from $243 per 1000 cu m to $392. The Government of Armenia is going to subsidize the Russian gas import price by 30%. On May 20 PSRC Chairman Robert Nazaryan said that according to the preliminary data, the gas price for the population of Armenia may grow to 20%, and for commercial consumers - by 15%. The Russian gas price in Armenia has not changed since April 2010. Armenia also receives Iran gas and pay for it with electricity at the rate of 3 KW/h per 1 cu m of gas.
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