The Ministry of Transportation and Communications fixed the prices for “ArmenTel” for 2006 a couple of days ago. True, the ministry has not taken into consideration the variant proposed by “ArmenTel”, but it hasn’t kept the same prices either; as a matter of fact it has increased them “a litte”. This form of “complementary” politics is characteristic of all communal services of Armenia. The representative of the company always presents a very high price and the confirmer sharply lowers the “price” and sets a price which has possibly been agreed on beforehand. So, you get the impression that the ministry won after a 2-3 month negotiation process and set the high price. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications even announced that the rise in prices will not affect the consumers that much because the 4 drams for 1600 minutes after the free 360 minutes has risen to 5 drams; so, it has only been increased by 1 dram. However, what the ministry doesn’t mention is that the 1 dram rise for 1 minute means a 25% rise in prices, which, we can all agree is not low. As for the price for 1 minute, in the case of 1600 minutes, it has gone up from 8 drams to 9. This time, it went up by 12%. The subscription fee for citizens has gone up by 200 drams (from 900 drams to 1100 drams0, but it has gone up by 20% The price for businessmen subscribers has gone up from 3240 drams to 4800; basically, it has gone up by 45%. These “little” rises in drams are going to profit “ArmenTel’ a lot.
““ArmenTel” has defended its right stated in the #60 license,” said press secretary for the company Hasmik Chutilyan. ““ArmenTel” has the right to rebalance its prices for 5 years straight.”
For some illogical reason, the corresponding bodies of the ministry have not considered the 20% and higher rises in prices as essential. If the Ministry of Transportation and Communications did not satisfy the application sent by “ArmenTel”, in that case the monopoly of the company would be prolonged until 2012 instead of 2009. This is how the correspondent of the ministry consoles the citizens.