DUSHANBE, January 14, 2012, Asia-Plus – Enterprises, organizations and residential customers now owe 598.7 million somoni to Barqi Tojik (state-owned utility responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Tajikistan), Nozirjon Yodgori, a spokesman for Barqi Tojik said.

According to him the most incorrigible nonpayer is the Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Resources (LRWR), which now owes more than 182 million somoni to the power holding.

Residential customers’ electricity debts have reportedly reached 276.5 million somoni.

Tajik aluminum smelter was also among the main nonpayers.  “However, the Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) last year paid regularly for electricity consumption and it even repaid 37 percent of arrears of the previous years,” the spokesman said.

Yodgori added that TALCO consumed more than 5.4 billion kWh of electricity last year.