Epress.am News from Armenia
It's not clear for Armenia's population on what basis the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) calculated and found that the electricity tariff must increase, said Union of Public Defenders NGO Executive Director Aram Grigoryan during a discussion at the Media Center in Yerevan today. Note, the Union of Public Defenders protects consumers' interests in public services.
Grigoryan recalled that one of the arguments for the electricity price hike was that business entities in this sector have accumulated debts and one of the reasons for this is that the nuclear power plant resumed operations last year 88 days later than expected.
"The distribution network has neither the right nor the opportunity to accumulate debt because provided in the calculated rate are colossal profits […] It’s understandable if it makes poor expenses or does I-don’t-know-what with that collected sum, perhaps [a problem will arise]. But that doesn't mean that, in any case, our government has to go and get into consumers' pockets. It's the easiest way of management, to do nothing; not to talk about the reasons; to eliminate the consequences, get into the consumer's pocket and say, you have to pay more," he said.
The consumers' rights expert also commented on one of the other arguments for the price increase — that the Yerevan Thermal Power Plant has to be repaired once every 4 years and the expenses should be compensated.
"Consumers don't buy the electricity produced by Yerevan TPP; everyone should know this. Yerevan TPP has an agreement with Iran; from there, they move gas to Armenia, convert it into electricity at the TPP, and a certain part of it is returned to Iran. A citizen of Armenia shouldn't have to pay for this; let them ascertain their relations with Iran and the state decide whether to help the TPP or not," he said.
One other argument was that there was a deficit of water last year and the hydroelectric power plant produced less electricity. In this regard, Grigoryan said that the Sevan-Hrazadan Cascade, one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the country, didn't suffer as a result of a lack of water. "Even if there wasn't a lot of rain, the water released from [Lake] Sevan exceeded the norm, compared to last year," he said.
In Grigoryan's opinion, one of the reasons for the electricity price hike is monopoly: working in the sector are companies that, being created decades ago, use old, inefficient methods of financial and economic management.
"The company is managed inefficiently, the state goes into the pocket of consumers, the company uses its finances elsewhere [manages the finances at its discretion], and our state once again fills the gap at the expense of consumers," he explained. Grigoryan stressed that raising the tariff is unacceptable as long as the state is unable to justify it.
Photo credit: Green Lantern Electric