"No To Plunder! and "Rise Up, Armenia!" movements have no ideological differences and will be fighting against electricity price hikes in Armenia together, Andreas Ghukasyan, Coordinator of "Rise Up, Armenia!" movement told ArmInfo on Sept 2. He said that the members of the two movements supported each other on Sept 1 when their activists were detained. The two movements agreed to join each other's rallies scheduled for Sept 4 in the Republic Square and on Sept 11 in the Liberty Square.
The 5 activists of No To Plunder! Movement who were detained earlier on Tuesday have been set free later on the same day. Seven activists of the "Rise Up, Armenia!" movement were detained, but Valery Osipyan, the Deputy Chief of the Police, said they would be set free too.
The activists tried to shut-off Baghramyan Ave saying the government misleads the people, as the decision to subsidize the increased rate does not apply to the big companies.
On August 31, the government of Armenia approved the decision to subsidize the electricity price rise for both the population and small and mid-sized enterprises (SME).
The government will subsidize the 6.93AMD per 1kWh of electricity for the population and assume half of the electricity expenses of SME, in particular, 250kWh electricity for the SME consuming up to 500kWh. The big business will not be subsidized. The subsidies will be provided before the completion of the consultative meetings.
On 1 August 2015 the electric power price for the ultimate consumers of Armenia was increased by 6.93AMD per 1 kWh: the daytime tariff for the ultimate consumers grew
from the current 41.85 AMD to 48.78 AMD per 1 kWh, while the nighttime tariff rose from 31.85 to 38.78 AMD (VAT inclusive). The electricity rate will be subsidized until the Deloitte & Touche consulting company issues a resolution on the audit of the energy system and electricity distributing networks.