ARMENIA’S ADMINISTRATIVE COURT TO CONSIDER CLASS ACTION AGAINST HIGHER GAS PRICE
/ARKA/
April 16, 2010
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, April 16, /ARKA/. Armenia’s Administrative Court said
today it will consider a class action brought against the Public
Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), Armenia’s national gas operator
ArmRosGazprom (ARG) and the latter’s subsidiary Transgaz company by
several thousands of Armenian citizens, as well as ex-prime minister
Hrant Bagratian and a former Yerevan mayor Vahagn Khachatrian, who
want the court to annul a PSRC decision allowing ArmRosGazprom to
raise the price of gas from April 1.
Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) endorsed the
gas price increase requested by ArmRosGazprom, a joint Russian-Armenian
national gas distribution company. ARG asked on 22
January to increase the price of natural gas from the current 96,000
drams (US$252) to 136,000 dram per 1,000 cubic meters of gas–a 41%
increase. The PSRC negotiated only a small decrease of the requested
new price and agreed that ARG will charge 132,000 dram per 1,000
cubic meters, a mere 4,000 dram difference. The price for industrial
enterprises consuming more than 10,000 cubic meters of gas a month the
price rose by 13%, from $215 per one thousand cubic meters, to $243.13.
The PSRC explained that it had to take the decision based