Afghan company has fully paid off the debts for electricity imports from Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, totaling $627 million

Tashkent

Afghanistan has settled its debt with Uzbekistan for electricity supplies accumulated over two years, according to the Afghan publication Hasht-e Subh Daily, citing a representative of the energy company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), Hikmatullah Maivandi.

The company has fully paid off the debts for electricity imports from Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, totaling $627 million. Some of these debts remained from the previous government of Ashraf Ghani, who led the country until August 2021, confirming the information reported by Gazeta.uz.

According to the “National Electric Grids of Uzbekistan,” at the end of 2022, Afghanistan had a debt of $4.05 million to Uzbekistan. Last year, Afghanistan received 1.82 billion kWh of electricity for approximately $91.18 million (about 5 cents per kWh). In 2023, Afghanistan paid $93.5 million.

In January 2024, an additional 320 million kWh of electricity was supplied for $15.99 million.

In December of the previous year, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan extended the agreement on electricity supplies for the year 2024. The Afghan side requested the Uzbek Ministry of Energy to address infrastructure issues in the energy sector and increase the volume of electricity supplies.

Uzbekistan’s Minister of Energy, Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, assured Afghanistan’s Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) that after the repair of three energy facilities, the supply of electricity to Afghanistan would resume.

In September 2019, the National Electric Grids of Uzbekistan signed a 10-year contract with DABS for electricity supply. Deputy Minister of Energy Sherzod Khojaev reported that the initial volume of deliveries would be 4.2 billion kWh, with subsequent increases to 6 billion kWh.

Uzbekistan has been making regular electricity supplies to Afghanistan since 2002. Over this period, the volume of supplies increased from 62 million kWh to almost 2.6 billion kWh by the end of 2019. Previously, contracts for supply were concluded on an annual basis.

Published under International Cooperation with "Sindh Courier"