The subject of “Aravot” online on air is discussed by economist Vahagn Khachatryan and expert for procurement policy Artak Minasyan.
Aram Abrahamyan – During the last year, the profit of the “Electric Networks of Armenia” company amounted to 70 billion while the maintenance expenditures amounted to about 39 billion. So, how does this company manage to operate with a loss?
Vahagn Khachatryan – The question is very appropriate because it is not the company, for which the government provides subsidies, and we are paying a lower tariff. In Soviet Union, the bread did not cost 30 kopeks, the electricity did not cost 2 kopeks, the transportation fee did not cost 5 or 3 kopeks, actually, the state was giving subsidy to them, in other words, it was reimbursing the difference between the expenditure and the cost price. In this case, we are dealing with a product – the electricity, in the tariff of which the Public Services Regulatory Commission included all the expenditures, plus the profit and its losses. Actually, this company was to operate at a profit in a course of years, in 2013, the profit was to be approximately 13 billion, in the preceding year – 12 billion, but it is the opposite, in 2013 – 10 billion loss, in 2012 – 9 billion loss. There is one important fact that this is a unique product where you, in fact, are not looking for a consumer, the consumer himself is looking for you. If you want to have electricity, I am paying in advance for the wiring and for ensuring appropriate actions to provide electricity. And in this situation, in 2015 they are talking about the tariff rise and substantiate that they have terrible losses, damages, and no one asks why it occurred.
Artak Manukyan – When we say there is no expense for looking for a consumer, yes, it is true, the same can be said in the case of copper export, there is a market and we export, but when studying all the expenditures, you can see that there are also marketing type of expenditures here. However, a very “generous” approach is carried out for the production-related expenditures.
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A. A. – In other words, they are spending more than they should. Is this why they are working with a loss?
A. M. – I would like to add the second factor and it is the great fund of the depreciation deduction. If we do not have an industry, especially in the recent years, and, in fact, have cut down on electricity consumption, the consumer actually pays for it. And I would like to see the marketing costs, particularly, with Iran. A search should be done under the recent developments. What should be done to be able to allocate the unused capacities? However, it seems that the costs are aimed at mostly the labor force, if you look, you would see that approximately 22 billion are the expenditures related with the acquisition of the labor force.
A. A. – In other words, the wages.
A. M. – Yes, imagine for a moment that you have a decline ofcapacities, by and large, in the case when we do not have these consumptions while the number of employees and their wages are increasing. A question arises. If they are not working efficiently, why do we hire more employees instead of optimization, including the fund of the wages? We do not conduct this type of actions at all.
Prepared by Aram ABRAHAMYAN, “Aravot” daily 21.05.2015
