Members of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower house of parliament) today informed Mirzo Ismoilzoda, the head of Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national integrated power company), that many residential customers practically from all regions of the country have complained that their electricity meters are overcharging them.
Mirzo Ismoilzoda, for his part, noted that there are 1.3 million electricity consumers in the country and all of them are provided with electricity meters.
“It is impossible that electricity meter reading can be wrong because we always check complaints received from the population,” Ismoilzoda said.
Asked about reasons for raising electricity rates, Barqi Tojik top manager noted they were forced to raise electricity rates in order to recoup investments made to build hydropower plants and power transmission lines.
“In recent years, Tajikistan has spent more than 2 billion USD of loans to enhance its energy sector and we are forced to raise rates to recoup these loans,” he added.
Tajikistan raises electricity rates practically every year. For the last time, Tajikistan raised electricity rates on October 1, 2017.
Current prices for 1 kWh of electricity are 16.85 dirams (15 percent increase) for residential customers, 40.00 dirams for industrial and non-industrial customers, and 16.85 dirams for federally funded institutions, including public utilities and sports complexes,
Electricity rates for pumping stations for mechanized irrigation and repair-and-production bases of the Agency for Land Reclamation and Irrigation under the Government of Tajikistan rose to 5.86 dirams for the period from April 1 to September 30 and to 16.85 dirams for the period from October 1 to March 31.
The price of one KWh of electricity for vertical drainage wells and land reclamation pumping stations was raised to 5.8 dirams.
Electricity rates for electric boilers, hot water supply and heating system rose to 101.54 dirams for non-federal sphere and to 30.13 dirams for federally funded institutions.
Meanwhile, prices for the Tajik Aluminum Plant (TALCO) remained unchanged – 7.20 dirams for period from May 1 to September 30 and 11.80 dirams for the period from October 1 to April 30.
Since 2009, electricity rates for residential customers have risen 80 percent from 6 dirams in 2009 to 16.85 dirams this year.
In the coming three years, the authorities plan to raise electricity rates by another 33.3 percent. According to forecast of the key macroeconomic indicators for 2018-2020 that was endorsed by the government last summer, electricity rates are expected to rise 9.9 percent in 2018, 8.4 percent in 2019 and 15 percent in 2020.
