ARMENIAN LEADER SAYS GOVERNMENT TO COMPENSATE PEOPLE FOR GAS PRICE RISE
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
5 Apr 06
[Presenter] Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today visited the
ArmRosGazprom company in Yerevan and held a working meeting with the
management of the company.
Kocharyan said that ArmRosGazprom was a large company and played a
significant role in developing the Armenian economy. He added that the
main goal of his visit was to summarize the results of the company’s
work in 2005 and outline the main tasks for 2006.
The head of ArmRosGazprom, Karen Karapetyan, said that 1.69bn cu.m.
of gas was delivered to the republic in 2005, which was 24.2 per cent
more than in 2004. He said that today ArmRosGazprom supplies gas to
360,634 customers. The company is planning to finish the intensive
stage of restoring gas supplies in 2007. In the future, ArmRosGazprom
is planning to increase the number of customers by 80,000.
The Armenian president said with confidence that the company would
keep up with the pace of development of recent years.
[Kocharyan] First, we should realize that from now on we will be
buying gas not at 54 dollars per 1,000 cu.m. Gas at this price can
be found nowhere. The tariff commission was to approve a new gas price.
We have carried out an intensive work with the Russian side over the
past three months in order to soften the negative impact of the gas
price rise on our people. We have found a way for solving this problem,
and the Armenian government will adopt a final decision related to
this issue in the near future.
We intend to implement a major investment programme with Russia
related to the fifth block of the Razdan power plant. As a result,
the Armenian government will have enough funds to compensate people
for the gas price rise within three years. At the same time, the
unfinished block of the Razdan power plant will be built, which will
make it possible to lower prices in the future.
People should not worry because the retail gas price will increase
only by 10-15 per cent.