{"id":266787,"date":"2015-07-15T13:38:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T09:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=266787"},"modified":"2015-07-15T13:41:37","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T09:41:37","slug":"armenian-government-still-unsure-how-to-subsidize-electricity-price-hike-ngo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2015\/07\/15\/armenian-government-still-unsure-how-to-subsidize-electricity-price-hike-ngo.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenian Government Still Unsure How to Subsidize Electricity Price Hike: NGO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t<span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">The Government of the Republic of Armenia is still unsure where it will find funds to subsidize the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/26\/epress-am-recovers-video-material-seized-by-armenian-police-during-sit-in-dispersal-video.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">controversial rise in electricity rates<\/span><\/a> in Armenia; it is&nbsp;also still unknown who, specifically, will benefit from these subsidies, &ldquo;Union of Informed Citizens&rdquo; NGO said in a statement issued on Wednesday, July 15.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe organization sent a letter of inquiry to the RA Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in connection with Armenian President <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/27\/armenian-parliament-to-subsidize-cost-of-increased-electricity-rates-%E2%80%9Cat-the-expense-of-taxpayers%E2%80%9D.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">Serzh Sargsyan&#39;s offer<\/span><\/a> to finance the price hikes. In response to the NGO&#39;s inquiry, Yervand Zakharyan, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, said the financial source of the subsidy, as well as the range of potential beneficiaries, is still being discussed.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn the event that the Executive subsidizes all types of consumers (industrial enterprises, organizations, and residential customers), as stated by the organization, it will cost around AMD 3 billion per month (USD 6 million), which is quite a large amount of money; it amounts to around AMD 35 billion annually (USD 74 million) and makes up 3 percent of the RA state budget.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&ldquo;If, however, the Government decides to subsidize [the tariff hike] for residential customers only, then it will cost our country just about AMD 1 billion per month (USD 2 million). On the other hand, in that case industrial enterprises and other organizations will have to pay increased electricity rates, which will cause a significant inflation, leading to lower competitiveness of national products in international markets, particularly within the [Eurasian Economic Union], where electricity in all countries is much cheaper than in Armenia. As a result, our exports to EEU countries will only decline,&rdquo; the NGO concluded.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tNote, Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/17\/armenian-protesters-throw-eggs-at-psrc-office-after-commission-decides-to-increase-electricity-tariff-by-nealy-7-drams.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">decided on June 17<\/span><\/a>, 2015, to increase the tariff for electricity supplied to consumers by 6.93 drams. Starting August 1, 2015, a kilowatt-hour of energy will cost 48.78 drams during the daytime (previously &ndash; 41.85 drams), and 38.78 drams &ndash; the nighttime (previously &ndash; 31.85).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the event that the Executive subsidizes all types of consumers (industrial enterprises, organizations, and residential customers), as stated by the organization, it will cost around AMD 3 billion per month (USD 6 million)&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34940,10463,56330,12928,50560,50559,12350],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}