Afghan media reports say De Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS — Afghanistan’s national power utility) has decided to sell the estate of its debtors so that they pay nearly US$62 million bills of the power to the Central Asian countries.
Hasht-e Subh (Eight in the Morning) says DABS plans to sell the houses of former officials and politicians who did not pay the bills of electricity for years and consumed a large amount of electricity.
The acting head of DABS, Safiullah Ahmadzai said that they will implement the plan and will pay off all the debts in order to prevent cutting electricity by exporting countries.
Khaama Press reports that Ahmadzai said that they talked with the exporting countries and they were assured about the electricity not be cut for the time being.
The decision is reportedly taken after reports over the cutting of electricity by Central Asian countries as the winter season is approaching.
Afghanistan is an importing country of electricity that imports 80% of the power from Iran, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and the rest is being produced internally.
According to the Caspian Policy Center, Uzbekistan alone provides 460 MW of electricity to Afghanistan annually, of which 300 MW is directed to Kabul.
Even developing domestic electric generation capability can include the need to deal with the country’s neighbors. For instance, almost all rivers flowing through Afghanistan are trans-boundary, yet the country has only one water-sharing agreement, which is with Tehran. Such a reality hinders efforts to construct hydro power facilities.
TOLONews reported on October 4 that DABS officials have said Afghanistan now owes 62 million U.S. dollars for electricity from neighboring countries.
Citing an official with DABS, Sputnik Tajikistan reported on October 5 that Afghanistan now owe 1.1 million U.S. dollars to Tajikistan in power debt.
Tajikistan supplies electricity to Afghanistan via two power transmission lines – 110 kV power transmission line and 220 kV power transmission line. The price of one kWh of electricity supplied via the 101 kV power line is 3.0 cents and the price of one kWh of electricity supplied via the 220 kV power line is 4.5 cents.
Afghanistan is the biggest importer of Tajikistan’s electricity; last year, electricity accounted for almost 65 percent of Tajikistan's exports to Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan (MoEWR) said in July that power supplies have been continuing to Afghanistan in accordance with the schedule agreed by the sides at the beginning of this year. This is reportedly explained by the fulfillment of the clauses of the contract concluded between the two countries.
Under this contract, Tajikistan will supply up to 1.5 billion kWh of electricity to Afghanistan this year.
According to data from the Agency for Statistics under the Government of Tajikistan, Tajikistan has exported US$72.6 million worth of electricity over the first eight months of this year, which is 56.3 percent more than in the same period last year.
