DUSHANBE, January 23, 2013, Asia-Plus — The Government of Tajikistan reportedly does not plan to raise electricity prices in the near future.
An official source at Barqi Tojik (state-owned utility responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Tajikistan) has denied speculations that electricity rates will rise in the near future as absolutely baseless.
For the last time, the electricity prices were raised in Tajikistan in March last year. The government approved 25 percent increase in electricity prices beginning on April 1, 2012. Before that, the Tajik authorities raised electricity rates in January 2010 while usually, Tajikistan raised electricity prices by 20 percent twice a year in order to make the energy sector profitable.
Current prices of one kWh of electricity are 11 dirams for residential customers, 26.63 dirams for industrial and non-industrial enterprises, 10.63 dirams for public utilities, 19.5 dirams for federally funded institutions, and 1.88 dirams for pump stations and electrical transportation. Tajikistan Aluminum Company (TALCO) now pays 8.2 dirams for usage of one kWh of electricity.
Electricity pricing (sometimes referred to as electricity tariff or the price of electricity) varies widely from country to country, and may vary significantly from locality to locality within a particular country. There are many reasons that account for these differences in price. The price of power generation depends largely on the type and market price of the fuel used, government subsidies, government and industry regulation, and even local weather patterns.
