Representatives of Afghan company had requested for $90 million from the UN Assistance Mission to repay the electricity debt
Dushanbe
The Afghan energy company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) has settled its debt with Tajikistan, Tajik company Barki Tojik announced. Last year, Kabul owed Dushanbe $28 million. The debt arose due to difficulties in transferring funds from Afghan accounts.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of power, Afghanistan paid for the electricity supplied by Uzbekistan in 2021. Afghanistan gradually repaid its debts to Tajikistan: by February 2022, $6 million had been paid out of a total debt of $33 million.
However, in 2022, Kabul once again accumulated a total debt of over $100 million to both Dushanbe and Tashkent.
Around $70 million had been paid to Uzbekistan by August 2022. Against this backdrop, Tajikistan accommodated Afghanistan and concluded a new energy supply agreement for 2023.
Representatives of DABS stated in mid-2022 that they requested $90 million from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to repay the electricity debt.
In August 2023, they announced that they had collected 24.8 billion Afghanis (approximately $283 million) over the past year. The Taliban cited politicians and associates of the previous government, which was ousted in 2021, as one of the sources of these funds.
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Courtesy: Central Asian Light (Posted on Aug 11, 2023)
