Bowing to pressure from thousands of protesters blocking a central Yerevan avenue for the sixth consecutive day, President Serzh Sarkisian announced on Saturday that his government will effectively suspend a controversial rise in electricity prices in Armenia.
Sarkisian said the government will keep the tariffs unchanged for consumers by subsidizing their increased cost at least until the release of findings of an international audit of Armenia's Russian-owned power distribution network.
Speaking at an emergency meeting with senior government officials, he said the audit will determine whether the more than 17 percent price hike approved by state regulators last week was economically justified or resulted from alleged corruption and mismanagement in the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) utility. The loss-making ENA will be held accountable if it is found guilty of forcing households and corporate consumers to bear the financial burden of fraud among its senior executives, he said.
Armenian News
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