Civil movement: Authorities raise electricity tariffs to repay foreign debt
Kamq (Will) civil movement believes that by raising electricity tariffs in Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and his associates want to repay the external debt of the state. “The loans taken by Armenia total $ 5 billion, which means that each Armenian citizen has a foreign debt in the amount of $1666. And now they want to pay off their personal debts at the expense of people,” Artashes Avetisyan, the founder of the civil movement, told A1+. He says the unfounded statements and explanations of the Chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), Robert Nazaryan, do not correspond to reality. In May, the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) filed an application with the PSRC asking to raise the energy tariff for the population by 17.08 drams. In particular, according to the application, daytime (7 am-23 pm) and nighttime (23 pm-7am) tariffs should be raised to 58.93 drams and 48.93 drams per kilowatt-hour, respectively. Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Yervand Zakharyan, supported the company’s bid and said that its huge debt [amounting 37.6 billion drams] resulted from the unplanned halt of the nuclear power plant, dry year in 2014, which affected the work of hydropower plants and breaches of balance modes. Robert Nazaryan yesterday confirmed that the price of electricity will increase in Armenia. He also said the PSRC will inform the public of their position on the ENA bid to raise electricity tariffs on June 9 or 10.
