Lawyer Norayr Norikyan wrote in his Facebook page:
“On June 2015 the Public Services Regulatory Commission during its meeting made a decision on the electricity price hike, according to which from 1 August the electricity price will be up by 6.93 AMD.
Pursuant to the accepted decision for the consumers (including household) using electricity from 0.38 KW voltage network the daytime price for 1 KWh will be 48.78 AMD instead of the previous 41.85 AMD, and the nighttime price (from 23.00 to 7.00) will be 38.78 AMD instead of the previous 31.85 AMD. For the consumers using electricity from 6 (10) KW voltage network the daytime price for 1 KWh will be 45.78 AMD instead of the previous 38.85 AMD, and the nighttime price will be 35.78 AMD instead of the previous 28.85 AMD. In case of 35 KW high voltage the daytime price will be 39.78 AMD per KWh instead of 32.85 AMD (including value added tax)., and the nighttime price will be 35.78 AMD per KWh instead of 28.85 AMD per KWh (including value added tax).
It must be mentioned that the “Electric Networks of Armenia” CJSC applied to Public Services Regulatory Commission for hiking the electricity price. ENA suggested hiking the price of 1 KW up to 58 and 48 AMD (by 17 AMD)` respectively for daytime and nighttime.
What is more interesting, the previous change of electricity price occurred in summer 2014. The Public Services Regulatory Commission at its sitting on 1 July 2014 made a decision, pursuant to which electricity price was up by 3.85 AMD from 1 August.
The majority of the society has been against the decision; moreover, thousands of young men for almost several days have been holding a fair demonstration, demanding the stoppage of the decision. Stating my civic solidarity with this demand, meanwhile as a lawyer I find it important to touch upon this topic from juridical point of view. Hence:
Pursuant to article 12 of RA Law on Public Services Regulatory Commission:
1. The legal acts of the Commission may be appealed in court procedure.
2. The size of the Commission’s stated price may be appealed in court procedure in the period of 7 days starting with the moment of the enactment of the legal act.
3. In case of the appeal against the size of the price the court checks its correspondence with laws. In case of violation of laws the court makes a verdict for the committee to make a new decision on the price in accordance with laws.
4. The size of prices stated by the Committee are not subject to changes by juridical procedure.
Please read attentively points 3 and 4 of the above mentioned article. Even the court is not authorized to change the greatness of the price stated by the Committee. The court is authorized to make a verdict for the committee to make a new decision on the price size…
Taking into account the fact that, according to article 18 of the RA Law on Legal Acts, the decision made by the mentioned Committee is classified within the ranks of regulatory legal acts. Pursuant to article 46 of the same Law, Regulatory legal acts shall enter into force within the term provided for therein.
Pursuant to Article 75 (1) a legal act shall be revoked upon the decision of the law-making body, its successor or a superior body endowed with appropriate powers, if the adopted legal act has not yet been applied and its application is inexpedient, or the relations provided for therein are impossible to regulate by that legal act or as prescribed therein, or it is impossible to fulfill the requirements provided for therein.
Combining the above mentioned, we believe that there are 2 juridical ways for the problem to be solved:
1. After 1 August the mentioned decision is appealed in a court procedure, in the period of 7 days taking into account the demand of the above mentioned law.
2. The mentioned Committee annuls the decision it made.
