Draft Bill on Disclosure of Actual Owners of HPPs and JPPs Approved by Committee

The permanent committee on economic issues of the National Assembly of Armenia has given a positive conclusion on the draft law presented by the "My Step" faction, which proposes to make information about the actual shareholders of energy producers transparent, thereby disclosing the actual owners.

According to Armenpress, Artaq Manukyan and Babken Tunyan, who authored the amendments to the "Law on Energy," presented the draft during the committee meeting. The draft proposes to make information regarding shareholders of electricity producers (including HPPs and JPPs) transparent. Manukyan emphasized that the proposal is in line with the logic of a previously adopted bill on disclosing the actual owners of mineral extraction organizations.

The MP noted the emphasis on transparency and accountability regarding public resources. If the proposed draft is adopted, information about individuals with more than 10% ownership in electricity production companies will become transparent, containing details about the actual owners.

During the discussion on the second reading, technical amendments were made to the draft at the government's request. Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Hakob Vardanyan stated that although the ministry is substantively in favor of the initiative, it has expressed the stance that it is not advisable to adopt the bill at this stage, taking into account the opinions of the Ministry of Justice partners. "We have had discussions during this time. And we have no substantive comments, there were technical comments that have been fully accepted," said Vardanyan.