During his speech at the plenary session of the Parliament of Georgia, United National Movement MP, Giorgi Baramidze, addressed the Parliamentary Majority and stated: "You lied to the people about pensions, tariffs, wages, petrol prices and loans – about everything and now you have done the same about the grape harvest, too, saying that it has gone well and everything is fine."
We took interest in the accuracy of this statement. Even though FactCheck has written about these issues in earlier articles and addressed these topics within different studies, we nonetheless will provide a short review once again.
Pensions
The Georgian Dream’s pre-election programme states: "The election block Bidzina Ivanishvili Georgian Dream, at the first stage, takes the responsibility that all categories of pensioners will receive pensions at least equal to the minimum income which will be guaranteed by a respective legal act." It should be pointed out that before the 2012 Parliamentary elections, the then opposition stated that the minimum income at that time (GEL 160) had been artificially decreased whilst expert opinion indicated that the actual amount varied from GEL 200 to GEL 220. Bidzina Ivanishvili made a similar statement in which he promised people that he would determine the actual amount of minimum income.
Pensions varied from GEL 110 to GEL 125 in 2012. Pensions were set at GEL 125 for all categories of pensioners from April 2013, increasing to GEL 150 from September 2013. Pensions did not increase in 2014 whilst they went up by GEL 10 in September 2015 and amounted to GEL 160. If we consider 2013 to 2015’s inflation rate (which was 9%), we can say that pensions have not actually increased as a pensioner could acquire more goods with GEL 150 in 2013 than with GEL 160 in 2015. However, according to the 2016 budget plan, pensions will increase by GEL 20 from 1 July 2016 and amount to GEL 180 (see Link).
The new government has not reviewed the amount of minimum income. According to the information of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the minimum income of an able bodied man in Georgia is GEL 161.9 as of September 2015.
Tariffs
Decreased utility tariffs were another of the Georgian Dream coalition’s pre-election promises. According to the promises, utility tariffs would be reviewed as soon as possible with significant decreases being implemented until a fair amount was reached. According to the statement of the former Prime Minister of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the prices for widely used products, electricity and petrol had been artificially increased and this would definitely be changed. In addition, the price for natural gas would be decreased three times.
After January 2013 when the new government assumed office, prices for electricity for those consuming up to 300 kWh were decreased by 3.54 tetri and by 2.7 tetri for those consuming more than 300 kWh. The decrease was achieved in the main by lowering provider company profits. In 2015, however, it became more expensive for provider companies to import electricity or produce it using thermal power plants owing to the depreciation of GEL. Tariffs for electricity increased in August and September 2015 and exceeded the prices before the decrease in all categories (except for those using below 101 kWh). FactCheck wrote about this issue earlier as well.
According to Bidzina Ivanishvili’s promise, the price for natural gas was to have decreased three times. According to the information of the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission, natural gas tariffs were reviewed after 2012. From 1 March 2013, the price for natural gas for home use dropped by five tetri (10%).
Petrol Prices
FactCheck has also previously written about the issue of petrol prices (see Link 1, Link 2). At a briefing on 10 February 2012, a representative of the Georgian Dream coalition, Levan Izoria, spoke about the artificial growth of petrol prices. He accused members of the incumbent government of increasing petrol prices by 50 tetri as compared to its real prices at the time. According to Platts, the average price for one tonne of petrol on the world market was USD 1,050 in 2012 whilst in 2015 it is down to USD 555.
According to the information provided by the Union of Oil-Product Importers of Georgia, the average price for petrol in the retail network in September 2012 was as follows:
- GEL 2.33 for one litre of Super type petrol
- GEL 2.27 for one litre of Premium type petrol
- GEL 2.12-2.17 for one litre of Euro Regular type petrol
- GEL 2.12 for one litre of Regular type petrol
- GEL 2.07 for one litre of Super type petrol
- GEL 1.96 for one litre of Premium type petrol
- GEL 1.84 for one litre of Euro Regular type petrol
- GEL 1.79 for one litre of Regular type petrol
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