Thursday, June 18 2020 12:12

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.