Afghanistan’s electricity debt to Tajikistan has been down from 33 million US dollars on January 1, 2022 to 27 million dollars, Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national power utility company) CEO Madumar Asozoda told reporters in Dushanbe on February 14.
According to him, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS – Afghanistan’s national power utility company) paid 2 million US dollars in January and 4 million US dollars this month so far.
Barqi Tojik top manager further noted that Tajikistan now supplies electricity to Afghanistan at the rate of 40 megawatt (MW) per day.
“In the spring-winter period, the supply of daily electrical power will increase to 400MW,” Asozoda said.
Barqi Tojik CEO emphasized that under the agreement signed between Barqi Tojik and DABS, Tajikistan will supply electricity to Afghanistan at the rate of 4.67 cents per 1 kWh
According to data from Barqi Tojik, Tajikistan last year exported a total of US$56.3 million worth of electricity to Afghanistan.
At the beginning of the last year, the power companies of Tajikistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement on the supply of about 1.5 billion kWh of electricity from Tajikistan to Afghanistan in 2021.
On December 26, 2021, the national power utility companies of Tajikistan and Afghanistan reportedly signed an agreement on the supply of electricity from Tajikistan to Afghanistan in 2022.
According to information posted on the Barqi Tojik’s official website, the document was inked by the then-Director General of Barqi Tojik Mirzo Ismoilzoda and DABS CEO Hafiz Mohammad Amin in the Uzbek capital city of Tashkent.
Under this agreement, Tajikistan will deliver daily up to 400 megawatt (MW) of electricity to Afghanistan from May to September this year.
Barqi Tojik emphasizes that the agreement is only of economic nature.
Meanwhile, DABS’s website says the agreement was signed as a result of two days of negotiations between the two parties. The parties reportedly also discussed issues related to regional connectivity and development projects such as CASA 1000 and construction of 500 kV power transmission line.
DABS says that at the end of the visit, the Afghan delegation emphasized the importance of cooperation with Tajikistan and assured that the security and defense forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) are ready to provide security for the suspended projects.
Tajikistan has sufficient summer-time (defined as May 1 to September 30) hydropower surpluses to export to the neighboring countries.
