Tuesday, December 17 2013

The Administrative Court of Armenia declined on Tuesday a claim by Let's Stop Rise in Gas Price action group to declare invalid the Public Service Regulatory Committee's decision to raise the gas and electric power tariffs.

The group can appeal against this verdict to the Court of Appeal.  

On June 7 2013 the Public Service Regulatory Committee of Armenia decided that the gas price for the consumers using up to 10,000 cu m of gas monthly would total 156,000 drams per 1,000 cu m instead of the current 132,000.  For those who consume over 10,000 cu m of gas monthly, gas tariff would rise to $276.98 instead of the current $243 per 1,000 cu m (up 14%). Tariff for services of the operator would be increased from the current 20.618 drams for transportation of every 1,000 normal cu m of natural gas to 25.637 drams.  Tariff for distribution of natural gas would rise from the current 13709.698 drams per 1,000 normal cu m of natural gas to 19278.021 drams. 

Tariff for transportation of natural gas would rise from the current 6948.266 drams per 1,000 normal cu m of gas to 9806.045 drams. With the rising gas price, PSRC adopted a decision to increase also electric power tariff as the expenditures of power generating companies will grow.  Thus, in daytime, the electric power tariff for the population would make up 38 AMD per 1 kWh instead of the current 30 AMD and at nighttime the tariff will rise to 28 AMD instead of the current 25 AMD. For commercial users, the tariff would rise to 29-35 AMD per 1 kWh at daytime and 25 AMD at nighttime instead of the current 21-35 AMD per kWh daytime and 17 AMD per 1 kWh for nighttime depending on the volume of consumption.  
ArmRusgasprom applied to the PSRC for rise of the gas tariff from current 132,000 drams to 221,000 drams per 1,000 cu m - 67.4%. April 1 2013 Armenia started purchasing gas from Gazprom OJSC for $270 per 1,000 cu m instead of the previous $180. Later the Armenian Government decided to subsidize the rise by 30%. As a result, the Russian gas price on the border is $189.