At risk of blackout, Afghanistan asks UN to pay power bills

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Afghanistan’s state power company has appealed to a United Nations-led mission to give $90 million 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 [b]Afghanistan[/b] from mid-August, electricity bills haven’t been paid to neighboring countries that supply about 78 percent 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 upaid bills stand at $62 million, Safiullah Ahmadzai, the acting CEO of Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, said on Wednesday. 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,” Ahmadzai said by phone, 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.

The UN mission hasn’t responded to that request yet, Ahmadzai said. 

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