About half of the debt falls on the population.
The total debt of consumers for electricity as of July 1 of this year amounted to 3.2 billion somoni (about $293 million), according to OJSC Distribution Electric Networks.
In particular, the population owes about 1.5 billion somoni ($138 million) for electricity, which is almost 47% of the total debt.
The report says that the debt of the population in the first half of the year increased by 4.2 million somoni “taking into account the increase in the cost of electricity.”
Large debtors also include the following consumers:
- JSC “Tajik Aluminum Company” – 276 million somoni;
- SUE “Vodokanal” – 90 million somoni;
- JSC “Rogun HPP” – 31.7 million somoni;
- JSC “Tajik cement” – 10.7 million somoni.
Budgetary organizations and institutions in total owe 84 million somoni, repair and production bases of the Agency for Melioration and Irrigation under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan – 50 million somoni, Pamir Energy OJSC – 1.8 million somoni, other consumers – about 1.7 billion somoni.
It should be noted that the country’s population was rightly indignant every time such statistics were published. People wondered how such huge debts piled up when households disconnected from the grid when they were behind on their electricity bills.
Barki Tojik previously stated that the bulk of the population’s debt was formed in the past, mainly in the 1990s.
However, such claims are refuted by official statistics: the debt of household consumers increased from 1 billion somoni at the beginning of 2019 to 1.5 billion somoni at the beginning of the second half of this year.
At the beginning of this year, Distribution Electric Networks OJSC announced the discovery of non-existent electricity consumers.
The report said that in previous years, large amounts of electricity were considered to be used by household consumers, which is not true.
“In order to reduce the rate of electricity losses, non-existent consumers were introduced into the program, which to this day creates difficulties for its proper functioning,” the company noted.
JSC Distribution Electric Networks has been selling electricity in Tajikistan since 2021 after the restructuring of OJSHC Barki Tojik (the division of the energy holding into three independent companies).
Source: Asia Plus TJ
