(ArmInfo) - The International Currency Fund recommends the RA Government to refuse from backing the gas prices for inner consumers till 2008, the permanent representative of ICF in Armenia, Niek Oomes, said at the press-conference.
According to her, the ICF investigations have shown that the backing chart is inefficient for consumers, who badly use it. However, the main problem is that the RA Government's deal with "Gasprom" for sale of the Hrazdan HPP's Unit 5, that enabled the Government to back the inner consumers, was not transparent, the ICF representative said. "The deal is not transparent since the incomes, received from the Unit 5 sale, are not reflected in Armenia's 2007 state budget and these means are controlled by the RA Defense Ministry", she said, reports Trend.
To note, the RA Government had sold the Hrazdan HPP's Unit 5 to "Gasprom" OJSC for $248,8 mln. The Government has sent $188 mln of this amount to back the inner consumers of natural gas within 3 years (till December 31, 2008), the rest $60 mln will be paid on a special account of DM. As a result, the subventions for the population made up 25,000 AMD per 1 thsd cub m of gas and those for commercial consumers - $52,1 per 7 thsd cub m of gas.