DUSHANBE, November 26, 2014, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s lower chamber (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament has endorsed a bill requiring amendments to the country’s law on the national budget for 2014. Under this bill, Tajikistan has written off tax debts of Open Joint Stock Company Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP)
A regular sitting of the sixth session of the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the fourth convocation, presided over by its head, Shukurjon Zuhurov, was held on November 26.
In his speech, First Deputy Finance Minister, Jaloliddin Nouraliyev, noted that the Government of Tajikistan wrote off OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1’s tax debts amounting to 30 million somoni.
According to him, the government made such a decision in order to support Barqi Tojik (the state-owned utility responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Tajikistan), which now owes 418.5 million somoni to Sangtudinskaya GES-1. “The decision will allow reducing Barqi Tojik’s debt by 30 million somoni,” Nouraliyev noted.
Tajik power holding also owes 185.6 million somoni to the national budget, the deputy minister added.
The Sangtuda-1 HPP is located on the Vakhsh River in Khatlon province, some 160 kilometers south of Dushanbe. The plant, consisting of four units with total capacity of 670 MW, was officially commissioned 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.
