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‘No to Plunder’ – a civic initiative that organized the first wave of rallies against a rise in electricity tariffs in Armenia – is staging a rally today, on September 1, in Lovers’ Park of Yerevan.

The activists’ demand remains the same: they demand cancellation of the decision to raise power tariffs in Armenia. A member of the initiative, Maksim Sargsyan, told reporters that today they are starting a new stage of their struggle, but it is still not clear whether they will hold protests daily or weekly. “We will determine our further actions during discussions,” he said.

The activist noted that the Armenian government’s statements about subsidizing the increased electricity price and conducting an audit of Electric Networks of Armenia Company are unacceptable to their initiative and will not affect their further struggle.
Maksim Sargsyan did not rule the repetition of Yerevan rallies staged in late June and early July when protesters blocked for over a week downtown Bagramyan Avenue where the presidential residence, the parliament, the constitutional court and several embassies are located.

Another activist, Vaghinak Shushanyan, said for his part that everything possible will be done so that the authorities will meet their demands.

The hiked electricity tariffs came into effect in Armenia on August 1. Earlier, Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) Company filed an application to Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia (PSRC) regarding an increase in electricity tariffs, a hike that the parliamentary opposition and civil society considered as unfounded and serving the interests of ENA. Until August 1, 2015 the daytime and night tariffs for population were 41.85 drams and 31.85 drams per KWh, respectively. The ENA proposed raising the tariffs to 58 and 48 drams respectively. But on June 17 the Commission granted only partly the ENA application on a rise in tariffs.

The power tariffs in Armenia have increased by 6.93 drams, not 17 drams.

As was reported, President Serzh Sargsyan said at the June 27 consultation with officials responsible for the economic policy in Armenia that cancelling the decision on power tariff rise was “very dangerous”. For this reason the government will cover the tariff rise until the conclusion (of an audit of Electric Networks – editor), he said. “If that conclusion [of the audit] confirms the price increase is well-based, from that moment on the consumers will begin paying the new tariff without having any suspicions. Should the conclusion confirm the increase had been groundless, the government would take measures to get refunds from the ENA on the amount surcharged, as well as bring to account those officials that failed on their duties»,” the president said noting that under such conditions the work that the government started a few months ago to change the owner of ENA will become a certainty, and the option of returning the company to the state and transferring it for competitive management is not ruled out.