DUSHANBE, April 9, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s Higher Economic Court has sustained a debt collection lawsuit filed by open joint-stock company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1 against Tajik power holding.
In a ruling handed down on April 6 Tajikistan’s High Economic Court sustained a debt collection lawsuit filed by Sangtudinskaya GES-1 against Barqi Tojik (the state-owned utility responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Tajikistan).
We will recall that Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP), filed the lawsuit in the Higher Economic Court asking to recover 5 million somoni from Barqi Tojik in mid-January this year.
Barqi Tojik now must pay 5 million somoni to Sangtudinskaya GES-1 and 100,000 in court taxes, an official source at the Higher Economic Court noted.
Representatives of Barqi Tojik confirmed this information but they refrained from giving further comments.
Representatives of Sangtudinskaya GES-1 refrained from giving further comments as well.
It remains unclear why Sangtudinskaya GES-1 filed only 5 million somoni lawsuit, while Barqi Tojik now owes more than 200 million somoni to it.
Tajik power holding now reportedly owes more than 263 million somoni (equivalent to more than 55 million U.S. dollars) for consumption of electricity generated by Sangtuda-1 HPP.
Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005. The company was established to complete the construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP).
The Sangtuda-1 HPP is located on the Vakhsh River. Construction commenced during the Soviet period in the 1980s, but halted in the beginning of the 1990s due to lack of financing when the station was about 20% complete. An agreement with Russia allowed restarting the construction, with four units entering service in 2008–2009. The plant was officially commissioned on July 31, 2009. The plant now reportedly provides around 15% of Tajikistan”s electricity output.
