DUSHANBE, January 31, 2013, Asia-Plus — Tajik tax officials warn to seize bank accounts of open joint stock company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1 over tax debts.
“The company received an appropriate letter last week,” Sergey Kobtsev, CEO of Sangtudinskaya GES-1, told journalists in Dushanbe on January 30.
“If the company’s bank accounts are seized, the company will be forced to suspend operation of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP), which now accounts for 15 percent of the overall volume electricity generated in Tajikistan,” Sangtudinskaya GES-1 top manager said.
To-date, Sangtudinskaya GES-1’s tax debts have reportedly reached some 37 million somoni (equivalent to 7.8 million USD).
According to Kobtsev, the company’s tax debts have occurred because Barqi Tojik (Tajik electricity supplier) has not paid its debts to Sangtudinskaya GES-1.
Barqi Tojik now owes 308 million somoni () equivalent to 64.6 million USD) to Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 HPP.
Kobtsev noted that 2012 was the worst year for the Sangtuda-1 HPP. Last year, the plant reportedly generated 1.87 billion kWh of electricity, 16 percent fewer than in 2011. In 2011, Sangtuda-1 HPP generated 2.16 billion kWh of electricity.
Press release issued by Sangtudinskaya GES-1 last month says that 8.3 billion kWh of electricity for a total amount of 706 million somoni have been sold to Tajikistan since January 20, 2008, when the first unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP was introduced into operation.
We will recall that Tajik and Russian presidents officially unveiled the fourth and last unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP on July 31, 2009.
The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s. The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.
Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 was established to complete the construction of the Santuda-1 power plant. Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of the company in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005.
Russia owns 75% percent of the shares minus one share and Tajikistan assumes the 25% ownership interest plus one share in Sangtudinskaya GES-1.
