ArmInfo. The Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of Armenia should protect the interests of society, not the interests of foreign capital and oligarchy. On June 18, MP Arman Babajanyan stated this from the rostrum of the National Assembly.
According to him, in previous years, PSRC was engaged in serving the interests of foreign capital and oligarchs, in fact, becoming their integral part. Unfortunately, the MP stated, after the "velvet" revolution, little has changed. The Commission by the inertia of the old continues to serve the interests of the oligarchs. The evidence of this, as Arman Babajanyan noted, is the nomination and election as the head of the PSRC Garegin Baghramyan, the brother-in-law of former director of the NSS, Arthur Vanetsyan by the ruling political force. Since 2003, it's Garegin Baghramyan, who was the head of the PSRC tariff policy department, who was the cashier of the then PSRC chairman Robert Nazaryan, ignoring public interests and giving preference to the interests of foreign capital and the oligarchy. As an example, Arman Babajanyan noticed a draft decision of the PSRC on gas tariffs, based on the interests of the Russian Gazprom Armenia CJS‘. In this context, according to the MP, it is necessary to discuss not the competence of Garegin Baghramyan, which is also important, but his civic position and political will.
It should be noted that today at the meeting of the National Assembly of Armenia discussions continued on the issue of electing a member of the Commission for the Regulation of Public Services. The Prime Minister nominated Kamo Sargsyan for this post. To recall, on June 19, the Public Services Regulatory Commission will consider the application of new gas tariffs. According to the information posted on the PSRC website, the Commission proposes to maintain the final tariff for individuals in the amount of 139 thousand drams per 1 thousand cubic meters blue fuel versus 135 thousand proposed by Gazprom Armenia CJS‘. The PSRC also considers it necessary to leave unchanged the tariff for socially disadvantaged segments of the population - 100 thousand drams per 1 thousand cubic meters. At the same time, the tariff rate for gas consumed by greenhouse farms will increase slightly. In particular, instead of 283.14 drams proposed by the gas monopolist, PSRC proposes to establish a tariff of 224 drams instead of 212 drams at present. For agricultural processing enterprises, instead of 212 drams, the Commission considers the option of 224 drams acceptable instead of 283.14 drams proposed by the company. Tariff for natural gas up to 10 thousand cubic meters sold to thermal power plants will remain the same - 139 thousand drams per 1 thousand cubic meters instead of 135.9 thousand drams proposed by company. For consumers who consume more than 10 thousand cubic meters per month, the tariff will be set at $ 255.92 instead of $ 283.14 offered by Gazprom Armenia CJSC.
