Go to court with the commission?
There will be no gas inflation in Armenia after 1 April 2001, at least for a month, announced President of the Public Services Regulatory Commission Robert Nazaryan at the National Assembly today. Nazaryan presented the Commission's annual report and answered journalists' questions.
"The price for electricity will remain the same until 2012 regardless of the outcome of the talks on the gas price," said Nazaryan.
The deputies tried to find out the expenses of ArmRusGazard for doubling the price before the gas purchased from Russia for 180 dollars reaches consumers.
"The price for gas delivered is 103 dollars more, that is, 283 dollars. As a company, ArmRusGazard must fulfill its established obligations as a taxpayer. Add 180 and 47.9 dollars, which is the Value Added Tax. The losses of gas make up 5.34 percent, which is the lowest loss compared to the CIS. Amortization and profit make up 17 dollars and ArmRusGazard is left with 17 dollars to keep its staff and pay for exploitation. If you want a smaller difference, adopt a law to reduce the value added tax."
Armenia envisages importing nearly 800 million cubic meters of gas from the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2011. Is the price already determined and can it have an impact on the gas being imported from Russia? In response, Robert Nazaryan said:
"There is no price for the gas imported from Iran neither on the border nor by the agreement. There is a formula: Armenia must return 3 kilowatts/hour electricity to Iran in exchange for 1 cubic meter of gas. Thanks to that agreement, the RA Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources started building the thermal electric station in Yerevan with small loans."
NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan today asked what the Public Services Regulatory Commission is doing to ensure the quality of gas and electricity. Mr. Abrahamyan suggested making a change in the legislation and giving the people a chance to fight against the monopolies with the Commission in court.
"A citizen can't fight against the huge company alone in case of complaints about the quality of gas," added the NA Chairman. Nazaryan welcomed the suggestion and said:
"We have received 140 complaints regarding the burning or disorder of domestic appliances due to the low or high tension. Today we have created a committee to study all appliances that have been harmed due to defects. We either renovate them or compensate. There are also court appeals, but residents still haven't appealed to us to help them in court," said Nazaryan, asking the NA Chairman for time to discuss the suggestion.
