ArmInfo. The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will be provided with a budget loan of 63.2 billion drams (about $ 130 million). The decision on this was made at a meeting of the RA government on June 11.
According to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia Suren Papikyan, the state budget funds will be provided to complete the program to extend the life of the second power unit of the ANPP. Earlier, Armenia raised a loan of $ 270 million and a grant of $ 30 million from the Russian Federation to implement the program, and as of today, the remaining resource of these funds was $ 107 million. For objective and subjective reasons, it was not possible to agree with Russian partners on this residual resource. For this reason, a decision was made to attract a budget loan of 63 billion drams. In 2020, the Armenian nuclear power plant will receive 18.7 billion drams from these funds, in 2021 - 31.5 billion drams and in 2022 - 13 billion drams. The maturity of each tranche is 12 years, of which the first 2 years will be preferential. The interest rate will be equivalent to the interest rate of borrowed funds of the Russian Federation raised earlier. The loan will be repaid twice a year in equal proportions on June 25 and December 25 of each year, and interest will be paid from December 25, 2020 with semi-annual payments on June 25 and December 25 of each year. The loan is provided without collateral. The Ministry of Finance of the country within the framework of the program will issue state treasury bonds. Within the framework of the project, it is also planned to form an interdepartmental tender commission, which will carry out all competitive procedures and control the process of program implementation.
In his turn, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated that the loan conditions provided by the Russian Federation were inconvenient for the Armenian side for the organization of work at the station. As a result, Armenia was forced to abandon the rest of the borrowed funds. Providing a budget loan will make it possible to increase the efficiency of its use and increase the station's capabilities. Earlier, in fact, there were restrictions on purchases - from whom and on what conditions to purchase goods. Now market relations will apply, the purchase of goods will be carrried out at competitive prices, taking into account their quality.
Previously, Suren Papikyan noted that the new authorities of the country inherited credit programs, which either expired or were in the process of expiration. At this stage, a large amount of work has been performed at the NPP unit. However, as a result of a number of procedural problems, for objective and subjective reasons, the new authorities once again inherited an already late program. Serious lateness in terms of time is obvious. Last year, the issue of extending the loan repayment terms and providing a new grace period was actively discussed, but this did not happen. Thus, as the minister noted, the Armenian side refused this loan and will attract its own resources.
There are agreements with Rosatom on the continuation of work that will already be carried out according to the internal procedures of Armenia. According to the minister, this will enable Armenian specialists to be involved in the implementation of the program, which is very important in the conditions of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. He also stated that the new authorities inherited a loan agreement, which should either be waived or renewed. It is impossible to refuse, because there are works that have started, but have not been implemented, and it is important for the state to bring them to their logical end.
