DUSHANBE, January 3, Asia-Plus - New tariffs on natural-gas and electricity supplies are expected to be endorsed today.  

The First Deputy Energy and Industry Minister Amonullo Ashurov told Asia-Plus that the country’s government will meet today afternoon and their ministry will submit for consideration to the meeting new tariffs determined for this year.  

According to him, an appropriate resolution of the government on this subject will be published tomorrow.  However, Ashurov refrained from giving details of how much the authorities charge the public for gas and electricity supplies.  

As it had been reported earlier, Dushanbe and Tashkent last week reached an agreement on the price structure for natural-gas supplies from Uzbekistan in 2007.  Under the deal, Uzbekistan will supply natural gas to Tajikistan at the rate of $100 per 1,000 cubic meters.  Tajikistan is expected to import at least 750 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan this year.  Specialists from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) say that natural gas will be delivered to the public at the rate of $130 per 1,000 cubic meters. 

As far as the prices of electricity supplies are concerned, the Ministry of Energy and Industry (MoEI) announced in October last year already that the electricity supplies prices will rise by 40 percent.  Under the new price structure, the public pays for 250 kWh at the rate of 0.016 somonis (0.47 cent) per one kWh and at the rate of 0.027 somoni for electricity consumed in excess of 250 kWh.