Pashinyan Instructs to Implement Strict Measures Against Gas Stations Performing Shortfills

The Market Surveillance Inspectorate conducted checks at 29 gas stations, and shortfills were detected in 16 cases. This was announced by the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Edward Aghajanyan, during a cabinet meeting.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan inquired about the guarantees provided by the government when a person requests '5 liters of gasoline' at a gas station: 'Does the government guarantee that they indeed receive 5 liters?'

'We have given the Market Surveillance Inspectorate instructions for this. It is the state's obligation that if I have granted a gas station the right to operate, then I must guarantee the citizen that if they are buying 5 liters of gasoline, it is indeed 5 liters, not 4.9 liters. Today, we cannot provide that guarantee. We also have similar issues with gas. If we cannot provide those guarantees for gas and gasoline, who is to say that we have guaranteed electricity or phones? Or that when you get 1 kg of cheese in a shop, is that actually 1 kilogram, or is it 967 grams?' said Pashinyan.

Edward Aghajanyan noted that after the law went into effect, the Market Surveillance Inspectorate checked 29 gas stations, of which 16 recorded violations, constituting 60 percent.

The Prime Minister mentioned that it should not be more advantageous for a gas station to be fined than to operate legally. 'A person makes millions through the mechanism, and when we say they are fined 15,000 drams, they say thank you. This means they have deceived hundreds of thousands of people. Fines need to be imposed in such a way that the company faces the problem of potentially going out of business,' said the Prime Minister.