ArmInfo. The work of the parliamentary commission to investigate the reasonableness of gas and electricity tariffs has been very fruitful. The Deputy President of the National Assembly, Head of the Investigation Commission Mikael Melkumyan announced this on November 20 at the press conference in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.
According to him, the commission will continue its activities, as it has many more questions to study, one of which is technological losses in the gas transmission system. At present, these losses amount to 6.69%, which exceeds the figure for 2002-2016, when it was 5.37%. Meanwhile, 1% of losses is equal to about 20 mln cubic meters of gas, which, by definition, the deputy speaker, is a terrifying indicator.
The MP noted that the average tariff applies to gas and electricity in the country. "In fact, the end user receives gas at twice the price than is purchased at the border," the MP noted. He also stressed that there are social groups that pay according to the tariff set for them, which is 80 drams instead of 139 drams, also the tariff for greenhouses is 100 drams. In fact, it turns out that the tariff is diversified for different groups.
He also noted that in order to reduce gas tariffs by 5 drams, it will be necessary to spend 27 million drams. "I believe that the reduction of gas and electricity tariffs should not affect extremely vulnerable segments of society. We need to pursue a more ambitious policy on this issue", the MP said.
Melkumyan also noted that gas transportation and distribution systems should be separated. The MP noted that today the whole world is currently on the path to liberalization, and the separation of gas transportation and distribution is one of the world's recognized tools.