YEREVAN. – President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on Tuesday proposed to Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan to find avenues to reduce the affects which the electricity price increase will have on the socially disadvantaged families in the country.   

The Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned the aforesaid from the Press Office of the Government.

In order to solve this problem, the PM commissioned the Finance, Economy, and Labor and Social Affairs ministers to prepare a draft government decision to increase the amount of family allowance for around 105,000 socially disadvantaged families.

The draft must be submitted for consideration at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.

The Public Services Regulatory Commission on Tuesday held a meeting and unanimously decided to increase the electricity price by 3.85 drams (approx. $0.01), or by 9.9 percent, as of August 1.

Accordingly, the daytime rate will increase from 38 drams (approx. $0.09) to 41.85 drams (approx. $0.10), and the nighttime rate will rise from 28 drams (approx. $0.07) to 31.85 drams (approx. $0.08), per kilowatt hour, for most residents in Armenia.