The Price of Liquid Gas Rises Daily, Yet No Authority Within the Government Is Investigating Why

Recently, Auroranews has received numerous complaints from citizens regarding the increase in the price of liquid gas. The situation is that the price of liquid gas has increased by 20 to 30 drams, rising from 220 drams to as high as 250 drams. While there are some gas stations in the city that have maintained their prices, they also report that they are out of gas.

It’s evident that a price increase of 20-30 drams per kilogram in a matter of days significantly impacts daily expenses, and the concerns of our citizens are justified.

Over the past week, Auroranews has regularly contacted various authorities to determine which entity is investigating the liquid gas market and why such a sudden price surge has been registered. As previously mentioned, both our sources and some state bodies connected to the sector referenced the law, informing us that the Competition Protection Committee (previously known as the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition) is responsible for such issues.

This process would not have been so complicated had the aforementioned body initially informed us that they had no reports on this matter and later insisted that they were not engaging with this issue.

“The liquid gas market is competitive, and there is no monopoly here; therefore, we cannot conduct any monitoring in this market or engage with it,” said representatives from the Competition Protection Committee, adding that about 50 organizations are involved in importing liquid gas into Armenia.

When asked whether it was possible for these companies to collude internally to raise the price of liquid gas, they replied that it is impossible for 50 organizations to reach such an agreement. Although this response was baseless and based on assumptions and subjective opinion, we will attempt to agree with it.

However, there is a significant caveat here. It is no secret to any citizen residing in Armenia how the market is often formed in our country. There have been documented reports in the past regarding various markets showing how large businessmen create companies in a given market, thus making it competitive and determining prices through these companies.

Such practices should not be a secret to the Competition Protection Committee, and the authority could at least conduct a minor study to understand and inform citizens why liquid gas prices have remained unchanged in the countries we import from while rising only in our country.

However, the committee dismisses the possibilities of collusion or internal agreements without any investigation and states that they will not address this issue. Citizens calling the committee's hotline receive the same answer and are advised not to call back.

Thus, since the Competition Protection Committee believes that this sector is competitive, they can increase the price of liquid gas daily, confident that they will not be subjected to any monitoring.

Auroranews calls on all relevant authorities to pay attention to this issue, as a situation has arisen where there are chaotic conditions in this market, and there is no entity within the government that is even attempting to clarify the basis for inflation and whether it is artificially created.

Auroranews does not claim that there is collusion here but raises all possible hypotheses and seeks to receive an answer, as numerous citizens are sounding the alarm, and we cannot ignore their concerns or instruct them not to contact our editorial office, as some authorities do.