DUSHANBE, February 21, 2012, Asia-Plus — Not all banks are today able to return Roghun’s temporarily surplus funds deposited at them.
“To-date, six banks keeping Roghun’s temporarily surplus funds (237.4 million somoni) have returned only little more than 38 million somoni,” the First Deputy Finance Minister Jamoliddin Nouraliyev told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, all the banks have paid interest on deposits. “However, two banks – Agroinvestbonk and Tajprombank – have failed to repay principals,” the deputy minister said, noting that Agroinvestbonk has sent an official letter to the Ministry of Finance, asking to extend the period for repayment of Roghun’s money.
“The Supervisory Board of OJSC NBO Roghun will consider the letter and the banks that failed to return deposits in time will pay daily fines at the rate of 0.05 percent of the principal,” Nouraliyev said.
The deputy minister has noted that there is no question of restructuring unpaid funds because of OJSC NBO Roghun planning for 2012. “The Ministry of Finance hopes the banks will be able to fulfill their obligations,” he added.
According to the Ministry of Finance, only three banks have managed to return Roghun’s money in full – Tojik Sodirot Bonk (TSB) – 20.3 million somoni, Fononbank – 5 million somoni and Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (Tajikistan Development Bank or TDB) – 2.78 million somoni.
We will recall that five commercial banks were selected in August 2010 for placement of temporarily surplus funds raised from the sale of shares in OJSC NBO Roghun — Agroinvestbonk, TSB, TDB, Tajprombank, and Fononbank. 118.2 million somoni were placed at Agroinvestbonk, 20.3 million somoni at TSB, 2.8 million somoni at TDB, 11.1 million somoni at Tajprombank, and 5 million somoni at Fononbank.
Interest rate on these deposit accounts is floating. The interest rate includes refinancing rate plus one percent; today it is 9%+1%=10%.
The money return period expired on August 16, 2011 and commercial banks keeping Roghun’s temporarily surplus funds have asked to extend the money return period for one more year, but the supervisory board has agreed to extend it only for six months, until February 2012.
Another 80 million somoni were placed in 2011 at three banks. 30 million somoni were placed at TSB (repayment period expires on May 27, 2012), 20 million at Tajikistan’s savings bank, Amonatbonk (repayment period expires on June 7, 2012), and 30 million somoni at Agroinvestbonk (repayment period expired on December 31, 2011). To-date, Agroinvestbonk has repaid only 10 million somoni.
Meanwhile, a source at Agroinvestbonk told Asia-Plus today that the bank is not yet able to return 138 million somoni of Roghun’s money placed at it. According to him, these funds have gone to lending to the real sector of economy and those loans have not yet been repaid. “We have sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance, asking to extend the money return period for six months,” he said.
To raise funds to complete construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) the government started to sell shares in Roghun to people on January 6, 2010. Tajikistan has reportedly issued 6 billion somoni (US$1.37 billion) worth of Roghun shares. 865.6 million somoni have reportedly been earned from the sale of Roghun shares to this day.
In a report released at news conference in Dushanbe, Minister of Finance Safarali Najmiddinov noted on January 23 that 1.1 billion somoni are expected to be allocated for the Roghun hydroelectricity project this year. These funds will be spent to carry out recovery work and relocate people living close to the site of the future Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP), the minister noted.
The government reportedly assumes the 75% ownership interest (4.5 billion somoni) in NBO Roghun and these funds will gradually go to financing Roghun’s construction.
