Gas price rise in Armenia leaves people in trouble

In his interview with RFE/RL, Mark Lewis, who addressed the expected rise in gas price from April 1, 2010, and relevant subsidies, stated that selective, not wholesale, subsidizing might be more effective after the gas prices rise.

In other words, if the gas price rise has negative consequences, the most vulnerable sections of population will need support.

In this context, he said, the IMF is for the Government’s support for the most vulnerable sections.

However, the Armenian Government is not at all ready to render such assistance to the vulnerable sections. It is natural – the state budget is on the point of collapse, being supported by injections totaling millions of U.S. dollars. Under the circumstances, there is no thinking of “any kind of” subsidies. So the best slogan now is “people in trouble are left to themselves” isn’t it?

Prices are reasonably raised at the end of the “cold season” to prevent discontent among the same vulnerable sections of the population.

But summer is naturally followed by autumn and winter. If the Armenian Public Services Regulatory Commission approves the prices offered by ArmRosgazprom, the socially vulnerable sections of the Armenian population are going to have hard times.

A 14.8-percent decrease in gas sales was registered last year as compared with 2008, with a 13.5-percent in electric energy output registered as well.

The reason was the global crisis, which proved to be a severe blow for the Armenian economy. Now, taking the opportunity, the expected rise in the prices for gas imported from Russia, ArmRosgazprom is trying to improve its financial position at consumers’ expense.

A number of ways of relieving the “price burden” for socially vulnerable families are available.

One of them is price differentiation – wealthy families, which consume more gas, might pay for it at higher rates than hard-up ones. The rich class’s detached houses consume much more gas than pensioners’ one-room flats, don’t they? But, as we can suppose, neither the Government nor the Armrosgazprom Company cares about it.

/News.am/