Deputy: PSRC executes order, subordinating public interests to monopolies

Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) violates the law which states that the purpose of its activities is to keep a balance between consumers and business entities, the head of ARF-Dashnaktsutyun parliamentary faction Armen Rustamyan told reporters today when commenting on the decision PSRC adopted yesterday concerning the rise in electricity prices on August 1, 2014.

“The interests of consumers are always subordinated to the business entities having a monopoly. Therefore there is a legislative gap to be filled. There are grounds for applying to the Constitutional Court for elimination of the gaps in the law. It is necessary to stipulate that a public interest is a priority. The priority interest of the state is valid when people’s houses should be demolished and new buildings constructed, but when the matter concerns about a priority interest of society, it is being ignored in all the fundamental processes, while the body that shall ensure it does not perform its functions,” Rustamyan noted.

In his words, at the PSRC sitting yesterday, the four non-coalition factions presented well-founded arguments about the necessity to delay adopting the decision on the electricity tariff rise, but the decision was taken because “there was an order from above”.

“This commission will become independent when it stops executing orders. That is why the opposition demands that it should be transferred to it,” Rustamyan said.

He underlined the need to change and improve the political system. “When serious problems arise in the country today, they show the system’s bankruptcy, which leads to economic disintegration,” Rustamyan said.

According to him, the authorities currently need funds so they are trying ‘to get that finance out of the people” or receive external loans, which has increased the poverty rate in the country and resulted in a fourfold growth in Armenia’s foreign debt. “Our energy system was expected to be the driving force of the economy, while this system is gradually losing its role,” the deputy said.