YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 3, NOYAN TAPAN. At the September 3 sitting, the RA State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition made a decision to impose a fine on Dvin Holding company in the amount of 2% of its 2007 incomes but not in excess of 300 million drams (a million dollars). The chairman of the Commission Ashot Shahnazarian said at the sitting that as a result of the proceedings initiated against the company it was revealed that having a dominating position in the market of nitrogen fertilizers, Dvin Holding used an unfounded price: it fixed the sale price of nitrogen fertilizer for persons other than land users at 111,430 drams in March 2008, whereas the actual price makes 84,000 drams. During the proceedings the company stated that in accordance with a decision of the government, it signed an agreement with the RA ministry of agriculture, by which it was obliged to supply 20 thousand tons of ammonium nitrate to agricultural producers - based on a list of villages, which was decided by the government. The price was 84 thousand drams for a ton (74 thousand was to be paid by agricultural producers, while 10 thousand drams was a subsidy to be paid by the ministry of agriculture). According to a letter of Dvin Holding, its partner - a Georgian nitrate-producing company warned that starting from January 1, 2008, the export price would sharply rise, due to which the company carried out the supply envisaged by the agreement with the ministry of agriculture until December 30, 2007. In the period of November 2007 to June 20, 2008, the company imported 23,985 tons of ammonium nitrate into Armenia. 20 thousand tons was sold by the agreement with the RA ministry of agriculture. 1,700 tons of the "off-the-list" amount was sold in Artsakh, including 1,000 tons for 84 thousand drams a ton and 700 tons for 110 thousand drams a ton. Whereas, according to the documents submitted by Dvin Holding, in March the purchase price remained the same - in the structure of the sale price of 1 ton of nitrogen fertlizer to land users and other persons. As a result, the sale price of fertilizer made 111,430 drams in March, growing by 11,430 drams as compared with February and by 6,430 drams as compared with January which ensured an extra profit of 32,318 drams a ton.

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