The government has decided to provide financial support to Barqi Tojik power holding ((Tajikistan’s national integrated power company) by writing off tax debts of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP).
A decree issued by the government in late December last year provides for reducing Barqi Tojik’s debt by 47.2 million somoni by means of writing off Santuda-1’s tax debts.
Meanwhile, according to information posted on the website of Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 HPP, Barqi Tojik now owes more than 1.055 billion somoni (equivalent to some 112 million U.S. dollars) to OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1. During last year, the debt reportedly rose 240 million somoni (equivalent to some 25 million U.S. dollars).
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.
The Sangtuda-1 HPP was officially commissioned on July 31, 2009 and plant has reportedly generated more than 2.9 billion somoni worth of some 20.5 billion kWh of electricity since that time.
The plant now reportedly provides around 15% of Tajikistan’s electricity output.
Barqi Tojik is the only buyer of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP. It buys electricity generate d by the Sangtuda-1 HPP at the rate of 3.1 cents per 1 kWh. In the summer period, Tajikistan supplies electricity generated by the Sangtua-1 HPP to neighboring Afghanistan at the rate of more than 4 cents per 1 kWh.
