DUSHANBE, December 12, 2013, Asia-Plus -- Pavel Lavrov, Director-General of OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP), and Nusratullo Davlatov, Chairman of the Tax Committee under the Government of Tajikistan recently met here to discuss Sangtudinskaya GES-1’s tax debts.

The sides reportedly reached agreement that OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 will draw up a schedule of repayment of its tax debts.

Deputy head of the Tax Committee, Poulodjon Yusupov, notes that they are aware of problems connected with the debt of Tajik power holding, Barqi Tojik, to OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1, and therefore, they have made a decision on gradual repayment of the OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 tax debts.

As of December 1, 2013, the OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 reportedly amounted to 52 million somoni, while Barqi Tojik now owes more than 404 million somoni to OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1.

“We have no objections to solving the issue by means of recalculating the funds at the expense of Barqi Tojik’s debt, but this issue can be settled only at the level of the government,” Tajik tax official noted.

The Tajik and Russian presidents officially unveiled the fourth and last unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP (650 MW) on July 31, 2009.

The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s.  By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s.  The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.

Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 was established to complete the construction of the Santuda-1 power plant.  Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of the company in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005.

Russia owns 75% percent of the shares minus one share and Tajikistan assumes the 25% ownership interest plus one share in Sangtudinskaya GES-1.