It happened. On the basis of the decision made by the public services regulatory commission, gas prices increased as of March 10. The society had already been prepared for that news. Russia had promised to increase the price for the gas provided to Georgia and Armenia long before. Then the Russian president promised us a hot winter and promised to increase the prices later. It was supposed that the prices would be increased as of April 1. This is what made the “ArmRusgazard” increase the gas price and appeal to the public services regulatory commission. Now, people have to pay 89000 dram for 1000 cubic meter gas when this price was 59000 before. There were no serous facts. Even the explanation that the 59000 AMD price was calculated on the basis of 100 USD exchange mark. But during a long period this exchange sum covered 130 dollars. This means that “ArmRusgazard” got 30% more as a result of exchange rate difference. Generally this spring is a period of dangerous expectations. Besides the danger of the bird flu, we are also afraid that the prices for water and electricity will be increased as well. Both the owners of the water supply company and energy power stations have already informed about the proposed change. Recently the Yerevan branch of the World Bank announced that they were going to make an analysis on what kind of impact this increase may have. It is proposed that this information will be ready by summer. In spite of journalists, these analyzers are more careful. In fact their opinion will be published after the first chain reaction of the price increase when the prices for water and energy will already be increased.
Citizens will see the difference when it comes time to take care of their communal expenses. The city transport administration is already thinking about increasing transportation prices in the fall. It is proposed that in April they will try to increase the prices for transportation by about 50%. Several days ago the national statistic service announced that the prices for some products decreased last year. Just after this announcement the prices for food increased (the prices for sugar increased by 8-10%). This tendency is leading to inflation.
“ArmRusgazard” says that it gets about 6% profit, but are they going to get this 6% again from the 118000 or 98000 prices that were discussed by the commission? The authorities don’t want to approve the information about Russia’s increase. They say that they are still negotiating. As far as I know the prices for gas are not formed in any stock markets, but are formed as a result of mutual arrangements. And it is hard to understand why the authorities hide the details of the negotiations. Before leaving for Moscow NA vice speaker Vahan Hovhannisyan said that during his meetings there he was going to explain to his colleagues what kind of losses Armenia might have as a result of this increase. Maybe this was a good thing. But in spite of this I wonder why NGOs complain about this new price the most. They probably think that the economical calculations that serve a basis for this increase are not real. It doesn’t depend on how professional the staff of the public services regulatory commission is; anyway the time they were given for consideration was not enough to examine the financial system and flows of such a huge company. In order to make it clear please note the following example: “ArmRusgazard” says that in order to maintain and operate their system it needs 8,112 million AMD. The committee decided that this sum was very big and cut it down to 6,415 million. It is very difficult to understand what economical explanations they have for this. Starting from last year the public prosecutor’s office has been examining the investment expenses (now – maintenance expenses) of another Russian big company, the Armenian power distribution systems. Of course we can’t say the same for other Russian companies too. Even more, we can’t say the same for the first company that we mentioned. And the reason is not the fact that what the public prosecutor’s office is doing is not approved by the court, but the fact that this action of the public prosecutor’s office can be considered as an offer “to come to an agreement” with them. I mean that these economical calculations (as well as the inspection) don’t have any proof what so ever. It seems that there are other fishy things going on.