Water and Electricity bills will

Water and Electricity bills will increase

Dushanbe, May 5th, KHOVAR - National Information Agency of Tajikistan, by Sayido Nazarov,

Translated from the Russian original at http://www.khovar.tj

Electricity tariffs

Decision on the new tariffs for electricity was made at the recent meeting of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan. In accordance with the decision, from 1 May of this year (2008), public joint stock holding company "Barki Tojik" will introduce a new pricing for use of electricity to consumers.

Henceforth, for industrial and consumer users 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity will cost 10.95 dirams (10 cents =~3.4 dirams). Governmental organizations, as well as public utilities and trolleybus administration will pay for electricity at a price of 4.35 dirams per 1 kilowatt-hour. Special minimum rate equal to 2.91 dirams is set for electric pumping stations. For the households 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity will cost 4.8 dirams.

Water consumption tariffs

Starting from June 1, the government of Tajikistan will increase tariffs for water consumption two times (by 100%). The decision was made by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. Along with the increase of tariffs for drinking water, also there will be an for sewage services.

Thus, the cost of one cubic meter of drinking water for the population now will cost 10 dirams, and sewerage services - 5.4 dirams for 1 cubic meter. In general services in the sewage will rise from the current 0.85 Somoni per 1 person to 1.7 Somoni. Rates for water and sewerage charges for public and private organizations have also increased. According to the source, tariff escalation is linked to a desire to cover maintenance costs in the sewage system of the country. Currently, the low tariffs are insufficient.