Epress.am News from Armenia
Slightly reduced electricity rates – by 5.3 percent – for Armenian households will come into force on August 1, 2015: it was reported earlier that the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) had decided tolower the daytime and nighttime tariffs from 48.78 drams to 46.2 drams and from 38.78 drams to 36.2 drams, respectively. Economist Vahagn Khachatryan, however, is convinced that the 5 percent reduction is not enough since last year the rates were increased by nearly 15 percent.
“They had said it was a temporary measure aimed at solving Armenia's Electric Networks' financial issues. Once the debts were paid, we were to assume, the prices would be back to normal again,” Khachatryan said at a press conference on Friday.
The economist stressed that Armenia's people had had nothing to do with ENA's 250 million dollar debt and they therefore should not have had to be forced to make up for it. The tariff, he added, could have been reduced even further since the current reduction offered small, if any, benefit for the population.
Economist Vilen Khachatryan, for his part, noted that in reality the lowered prices did not mean anything because “if the state stops on August 1 subsidizing the increase, the rates will actually go up for the people.”