DUSHANBE, January 8, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan introduced new electricity rates with effect from January 1, Rashid Gulov, deputy engineer-in-chief with national electricity company Barqi Tojik, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, compared to last year electricity rates have increased by 20 percent. He added that new power tariffs that were elaborated last month already were currently under consideration at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT).
Gulov said that a 250kW quota had been canceled. We will recall that according to the previous tariffs, residential customers paid 2.4 dirams per one kWh for usage of up to 250 kWh of electricity, and 3.8 dirams for usage in excess that that amount.
“This 250kW quota has been canceled and now residential customers will pay in accordance with consolidated tariff – 3.2 dirams per one kWh,” the Barqi Tojik official said.
Gulov noted that the rising electricity rates had come in response to recommendations from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) in order to make the country”s hydroelectric power sector more attractive to investors.
He said that in order to recoup the investments the country is currently making to built hydropower plants and electricity-transmission lines they had to gradually raise electricity rates. According to him, the average price of one kWh of electricity should reach 2.5 cents (equivalent to 8.6 dirams) by 2010.
Tajikistan has the greatest hydroelectric capacity in Central Asia, with an estimated potential to produce over 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually; however its hydropower plants currently produce only about 17 billion kWh of electricity annually. Tajikistan is the only country in Central Asia that faces severe seasonal power shortages, with towns and villages receiving electricity only for several hours during the early mornings and evenings. Electricity rationing introduced in all regions of the country except the capital of Dushanbe during winter months results in the supply of daily electrical power being reduced to some six hours – three hours of electricity in the morning and three in the evening.
Several large and medium-sized facilities, including the Sangtuda-1 and the Sangtuda-2 stations, are under construction in Tajikistan.
