"Hraparak" daily writes:
The future fate of "Electric Networks of Armenia" depends on the decision of the Public Services Regulatory Commission.
During the question-and-answer session with journalists after yesterday's government session, Pashinyan pretended that he was not aware of the decision of the PSC, until it is there, he cannot say which scenario he previously voiced regarding the HEC will come to life. At the same time, he did not hide that the government intends to buy the HEC owned by the Russian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, and the purchase process can be organized when the HEC is deprived of its license. "If we proceed from the assumption that the decision of the commission will make it possible, then the question will arise: what is the price? It depends on the price, and the price should be determined as a result of a comprehensive analysis.
If it is a reasonable price, I have said that the government will consider it very seriously. If the price is too high and it is obvious that we cannot achieve this achievement with the means of the state budget, we will go with the second scenario. But I say that it will become possible or impossible as a result of the decision made by the Public Services Regulatory Commission." Pashinyan also said that the second scenario is that it is somehow privatized by a company with an international reputation, but the government will have a certain presence, through legislative regulation or through shares - this is being discussed.
This, in fact, will be similar to the process by which the government appropriated the shares of ZPMK, Lydian or Viva Cell by receiving a "gift" from these companies.
Let's remind that months ago, after the famous interview about protecting the Church and the arrest of Samvel Karapetyan, within a few days, the authorities made statements aimed at nationalizing the HEC belonging to his family and developed a project, adopting it in the parliament in an extraordinary manner. This change made it possible to hand over the management of the HEC to a temporary manager, and the head of the PWS, Romanos Petrosyan, was appointed as the manager. Although the Stockholm Arbitration Court made an interim decision, considering that the appointment of the manager and subsequent actions are illegal, and the process should be suspended until the PSC has completed the examination of the proceedings of the HEC, and the proceedings have been under review for several months - two terms have been extended, the third expires on November 18, another term may be extended by the PSC, and most likely, A decision will be made to deprive HEP of its license, after which the state will either have to buy HEP or go with the second scenario indicated by Pashinyan, as it did in the case of the above-mentioned companies.
Davit Ghazinyan, the former director of the HEC, expressed his belief in the conversation with us that Pashinyan actually knows very well that the PSC will deprive the HEC of its license, however, according to our interlocutor, the purchase process will not take place, because we are talking about too much money, which is not in the state budget funds.
"They know very well that it is not possible to buy the HEC with this budget, unless, of course, they burden the foreign debt with very large sums," Ghazinyan said, not disclosing the amount, only saying that the price will be known after the license is revoked, as a result of the evaluations of the international independent evaluation company.
"Our insistence will be that the evaluation company should be an international reputable company, it should not be a local company, for well-known reasons.
