Wednesday, January 9 2019 18:42

ArmInfo. The government  promises that gas tariffs for consumers in Armenia will not rise, no  matter what happens on the border, but these promises are not enough  - additional resources are needed, Chairman of the "Consumer  Consultation Center" NGO Karen Chilingaryan expressed such an opinion  on January 9 at a press conference.

"Promises were voiced. I hope that Gazprom Armenia will indeed find  levers for maintaining current prices. But, I believe that it is  necessary to look for additional resources, in particular, to create  more favorable conditions for suppliers, to reduce losses, although  they are small, "he said. The expert found it difficult to answer the  question of how long gas prices for consumers (139 drams / 1 cubic  meter) would be maintained, but stressed that this is an exclusively  political question and everything depends on the state of interstate  relations between Armenia and the Russian Federation.

At the same time, Chilingaryan complained about the situation with  regard to prices in the Eurasian space:  "We are members of the EAEU,  which means that prices should be close to those available on the  EAEU market. But why do we increase prices only for those products  whose cost is lower than those established in the EAEU. And at the  same time, if we compare it with other countries of the Eurasian  Union, we have the highest prices for gas, water, diesel and  electricity. "

To recall, Nikol Pashinyan announced on December 31, 2018 that the  tariff for Russian gas at the border will be revised, but domestic  tariffs for the population of Armenia will not change. Later, the  press service of "Gazprom" reported that from January 1, 2019 the  price of Russian gas for Armenia was revised. It will be $ 165 per  thousand cubic meters. Earlier, the Armenian side paid $ 150 for a  thousand cubic meters for Russian gas at the border. Domestically,  the consumer is already paying $ 290 dollars per thousand cubic  meters of gas, large subscribers who consume more than 10,000 cubic  meters paid $ 242, and greenhouses and processing plants $ 212.