The mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan made a statement on Thursday, in which he announced the suspension of a decision to increase public transport prices, Novosti Armenia reported.
The price hike in public transport from 100 dram to 150 dram from July 20, in the capital, caused a real wave of discontent in Yerevan. Every day protests take place under the slogan: "We will not pay 150 dram". Moreover, celebrities, politicians and journalists are participating in the parallel action - Free car. Participants of Free car give a lift to Yerevanites for free.
"It is obvious that, within the principles accepted by us, we cannot impose the burden of price hike in public transport on those social groups for which we have provided preferential conditions within unified payment system," Margaryan noted.
According to him, these social groups include pensioners, students and poor segments of the population.
"I have ordered the creation of a special commission which will be able to work out a comprehensive decision "On revision of payments for intercity passenger traffic" within several months. And I suspend the decision (on the increase of payment for transport) until this," the mayor said.
The official exchange rate for July 26 is 410.5002 AMD/USD.