Makaryan: Electricity tariff rise will create problems for businesses

Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) and Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources showed disrespect for the public and misled business entities, disturbing their business plans, etc., the Chairman of the Union of Employers of Armenia Gagik Makaryan told reporters today, when speaking about the decision to raise electricity tariffs by 10% from August 1.

In his words, such ‘surprises’ endanger businesses of citizens who are not informed on time. G. Makaryan called on these bodies to have the courage to inform the public beforehand about the planned price increases and make well-founded forecasts.

The union chairman said that small business is now exposed to difficulties because of low profits, while following the electricity price hike it will be in a no-win situation.

As for the explanation for the tariff rise – an 88-day outage of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, Makaryan noted: “The nuclear plant is subordinated to Energy Ministry. Why should the public pay for the ministry’s delays? And if all this happened through the Russian company’s fault, why aren’t sanctions used?”

According to Makaryan, the PSRC’s statement and the document posted on its website are not in line with each other: the website says that the debt of Electric Networks of Armenia Company is 17 billion drams, while the statement says it makes 20.3 billion drams.

The union chairman called on the government not to act in such a ‘primitive’ way and be more careful during a tariff increase.