The decision of the Tariff Council will have negative consequences

The round table "The latest decision of the Tariff Council with regard to human rights", organized by Civil Society Protection Committee, was held on Monday in the office of the Azerbaijani branch of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly. The participants  spoke about the so-called differentiated tariff increases for gas (+ 100%) and electricity (+ 57%) of the Tariff Council of 28 November.

Chairman of the Movement "Democracy and prosperity of Azerbaijan" Gubad Ibadoglu called the increase in tariffs for gas and electricity as inadequate solution. This was done under the pretext of improving the social protection of the population, but it is actually the opposite happened: "The recent increase in tariffs and the crisis caused the growth of mental illness. Medical institutions  has already  registered 151,000 mentally diseased.  The family institute  undergoes serious erosion. "

"The situation is so bad that the government has gone to such an unpopular decision, trimming the family budget of citizens," said Natik Jafarli. According to him, the damage will affect not only consumers from the category of the population, but also the business structure, which will be forced to raise the prices of goods, which further aggravate the financial situation of citizens: "The social situation of citizens will worsen in 2017". He named the main reason for poor management of the crisis, which calls for institutional reform.

Director of the agency Turan Mehman Aliyev called totally unjustified the  increase in tariffs due to the fact that the energy resources in Azerbaijan are by many times cheaper than in importing countries: "On the contrary, in times of crisis should be reduced the price of gas and electricity for the social support of the population and growth stimulation production and market activity. " In his opinion, one of the causes of the crisis lies in the fact that high-ranking officials have created for themselves a prosperous financial environment, and mistakenly believe that all the people  around  live safely.

Ibadoglu noted that the  "Road Map" of reforms published by the government shows that there will not be reforms: "Civil society must develop its own package of measures to resolve the crisis. Under these conditions, along with the robbery of the citizens the government continues to increase external borrowing,: "The last example  is a loan of the Asian Development Bank for $ 1 billion."

The authorities have recently started to use the term inclusive development expert, said Togrul  Juvarli, But without the modernization of management, institutional reforms, freedom of activities, free participation of citizens in political and economic processes, this is not possible.

Aytekin Imranova, the head of the NGO "Islam, Democracy and Human Rights" pointed to the poor quality of gas supplied to consumers and the increase in the number of poisonings. She also pointed to the plight of the population in the regions, particularly in home heating issue.

This theme is directly related to the subject of human rights, because there is massive violation of social and economic rights of citizens, noticed Elshan Hasanov, Head of Political Prisoners Monitoring Center. He also said that the government deliberately suppresses human rights organizations to prevent their activity when taken such extravagant decisions, as happened with the Tariff Council.

Political scientist  Zardusht Alizade said that the government sees the country as its property, and believes that it should have no one else to share in terms of enrichment, "But, still, the problem is in the people, in the low level of political culture of citizens, inability to protect their legal rights, so the first thing you need to bring in people  is respect for their dignity and honor.  Togrul Juvarly said: “The government is concerned and afraid of the people, which in turn should take the advantage of it.” -0—