DUSHANBE, February 6, 2014, Asia-Plus -- In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Mahmadamin Aminov, an official with Barqi Tojik (Tajik state-controlled power supplier), revealed on February 6 that Barqi Tojik has announced tender to choose international auditor for evaluation of its receivables and payables.

According to him, the tender will be conducted within the framework of the World Bank project, Energy Loss Reduction Project for Tajikistan.

According to him, four internationally known companies have already expressed wish to participate in the tender.  “The tender winner will be announced at the end of this year,” Aminov said.

“We have some 1.5 million consumers auditor will analyze debts of each of them,” Barqi Tojik official added.

As of January 1, 2014, receivables for Tajik power holding were nearly 885 million somoni.

Meanwhile, payables for Barqi Tojik now exceed one billion somoni.  Thus, Tajik power holding now owes 427.2 million somoni to the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP), 131.6 million to the Sangtuda-2 HPP, and its tax debts now exceed 400 million somoni.

The development objective of the Energy Loss Reduction Project for Tajikistan are to: 1) to assist in reducing the commercial losses in the electricity and gas sectors, and to lay the foundation for the improvement of the financial viability of the electricity and gas utilities, in a socially responsible manner; and 2) assist in the viability assessment of the Roghun hydroelectricity project.  The restructuring will bring following changes: the closing date of the Administration Agreement (AA) signed between State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO) on behalf of the Swiss confederation and International Development Association (IDA), and the Grant Agreement (GA) signed between IDA and Tajikistan, are to be extended to December 31, 2014 and August 31, 2014 respectively; and the evaluation of receivables and payables for Barqi Tojik will be added as a new activity.