Tajikistan may not recognize the Taliban government of neighboring Afghanistan, but the two countries are starting to cooperate better on trading electricity.
Eurasianet says Energy and Water Resources Minister Daler Juma told reporters in Dushanbe on February 1 that Afghanistan had fully paid off its debts for power delivered to date.
Kabul has since 2021 proven an unreliable customer. While regularly paying off part of its dues to Tajikistan, it has struggled to clear its debts outright.
Recall, Tajikistan complained in early August 2022 that it remains unable to receive the funds it is owed.
Mahmadumar Asozoda, the director of the national power supplier Barqi Tojik, said on August 2 that the company had been unable to resolve the problem of outstanding debts since the Taliban seized power a year ago.
“Owing to the geopolitical situation in the region and in the world, when some banks financing the purchase of electricity came under sanctions, it has become complicated to transfer funds from the Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat [DABS] to Barqi Tojik,” Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi quoted him as saying.
The Afghan company “is working on the matter,” he added.
In July 2022, Tajikistan received US$2 million from Afghanistan toward the debt, which now stands at US$28 million, Asozoda said.
The debt has reportedly increased since February 2022, when Afghanistan had owed $27 million.
In 2023, Tajikistan exported 2.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, worth 110.4 million US dollars, Juma said. That was 5.0 percent more than in 2022, said the minister, without specifying how much of the total was reserved for Afghanistan.
Tajikistan now exports power to Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Tajik authorities claim that most of this power is delivered in spring-summer period, when hydropower facilities produce excess capacity. The exception is reportedly Afghanistan, which continues to receive electricity in small quantities to keep key infrastructure up and running. The precise tariff structure for that electricity is not made public.
