DUSHANBE, January 30, 2012, Asia-Plus — The government of Tajikistan hopes to negotiate with the government of the Russian Federation the restructuring of Barqi Tojik’s debt.
Barqi Tojik (Tajik state-owned utility responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity) now owes 320.7 million somoni to open joint-stock company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant.
“The next meeting of the Tajik-Russian commission for trade and economic cooperation will take place in February and we want to raise the issue of restructuring Barqi-Tojik’s debt at the meeting,” Barqi Tojik top manager Abdullo Yorov told journalists on January 29.
“There are many problematic issues, but we hope that all of them will be resolved positively during the meeting,” Yorov noted.
According to him, they are also going to ask the Russian side to suspend further increase in the rate of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP until repayment of the debts and improvement of the financial situation of Barqi Tojik.
“Under an agreement between Barqi Tojik and Sangtudinskaya GES-1 on the purchase of electricity generated by the Snagtuda-1 HPP, the electricity rate set by Sangtudinskaya GES-1 rises 4.0 percent annually,” said Yorov. “We now purchase electricity from Sangtudinskaya GES-1 at the rate of 2.25 cents (11.8 dirams) per one kWh, while domestic electricity rate set by Barqi Tojik is 8.6 dirams per one kWh. This is the main reason for accumulation of debts. Besides, the low collection of funds from the public and enterprises has also led to increase in Barqi Tojik’s debt. The public and enterprises now owe nearly 715 million somoni to Barqi Tojik.”
Press release issued by Sangtudinskaya GES-1 last month says that 8.3 billion kWh of electricity for a total amount of 706 million somoni have been sold to Tajikistan since January 20, 2008, when the first unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP was introduced into operation.
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.
