Appeal for aid as power bills unpaid

Afghanistan’s state power company has appealed to a United Nationsled mission to give US$90 million (about 3 billion baht) to settle unpaid bills to Central Asian suppliers before electricity gets cut off for the country given that the three-month deadline for payments has passed.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, electricity bills haven’t been paid to neighbouring countries that supply about 78% of its power needs. This poses another problem for a new government that is grappling with a cash crunch in the economy in part due to US and other allies freezing the country’s overseas reserves.

Afghanistan usually pays $20 million to $25 million a month in total to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Iran and now unpaid bills stand at $62 million, Safiullah Ahmadzai, the acting CEO of Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, said yesterday. These countries may cut the power supply “any day they want”, he added.

“We’ve asked the UNAMA in Kabul to assist the people of Afghanistan to pay the country’s power suppliers as part of their humanitarian aid,” Mr Ahmadzai said, referring to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. He said some $90 million was requested from the mission as the unpaid bills will jump to about $85 million in a week.

Currently, there’s no significant power cuts now in Kabul or elsewhere in Afghanistan. Mr Ahmadzai said just 38% of Afghanistan’s 38 million people currently have access to electricity.

The Taliban is looking to pay the bills and has called on neighbours to avoid cutting off their power supply, Bilal Karimi, a spokesman for the group said by phone.