DUSHANBE, December 16, 2015, Asia-Plus /Avaz Yuldoshev/ – Tajikistan has written off tax debts Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1 in order to save Tajik electricity supplier, Barqi Tojik. Barqi Tojik now owes 513 million somoni to Sangtudinskaya GES-1.
Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament today endorsed a bill amending the country’s law on the national budget for 2015.
The bill, in particular, provides for writing off Sangtudinskaya GES-1’s tax debts amounting to 28 million somoni and exempting it from paying taxes in 2016.
First Deputy Finance Minister, Jamshed Karimzoda, says the decision to write off Sangtudinskaya GES-1’s tax debts is aimed at, first of all, supporting Barqi Tojik, which is currently experiencing serious financial problems.
As of December 1 20015, Barqi Tojik reportedly owes 513 million somoni to Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP), and 295.3 million somoni to the Sangtuda-2 HPP, which was built under financial support of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
We will recall that Tajik and Russian presidents officially unveiled the fourth and last unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP on July 31, 2009.
The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s. The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.
Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 was established to complete the construction of the Santuda-1 power plant. Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of the company in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005.
Russia owns 75% percent of the shares minus one share and Tajikistan assumes the 25% ownership interest plus one share in Sangtudinskaya GES-1.
Barqi Tojik is a national integrated power company of Tajikistan. The chairman of the company is Rustam Rahmatzoda. Barqi Tojik operates the Norak hydroelectric power plant, the largest station in Central Asia with an installed generation capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) and produces over 75% of Tajikistan’s electricity.
