Tajikistan, Afghanistan Fail to Sign Agreement on Power Supply

Excerpt from report by privately-owned Tajik news agency Asia- Plus website

Dushanbe, 22 July: An agreement on purchasing Tajik electricity by Afghanistan has not been signed, because the parties have not agreed on tariffs for electricity.

We should recall that this agreement should have been signed in Dushanbe on 20 June.

The Tajik minister of energy and industry, Sherali Gul, told journalists that the Afghan side was prepared to pay one cent per kWh of Tajik electricity, although the price of one kWh of electricity in world markets ranged between six and eight cents.

“Currently, one kWh of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power station’s electricity, which will be supplied to the neighbouring country after signing the agreement, costs 3.1 cents for Tajikistan itself, he stressed, adding that the Tajik Ministry of Economic Development [and Trade] suggested Afghanistan the price of 3.5 cents per one kWh of electricity. Representatives from Afghanistan told us that the agreement would be signed when the suggested price would be discussed.”

[Passage omitted: background information]

Originally published by Asia-Plus news agency website, Dushanbe, in Russian 22 Jul 08.

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