Azerbaijan, Baku, March 6 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Kazakhstan will stop gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan, if Kyrgyz side does not pay off its debt, KyrTAG quotes Kyrgyz Energy Minister Askar Shadiev as saying at a government meeting on Tuesday.
"The Kazakh party has informed us that gas supplies will be stopped if debt repayment schedule is not made," Shadiev said.
He said Kyrgyzstan's debt to Kazakhstan for natural gas hit $7 million.
The company Kyrgyzgaz paid off the debt to Kazakhstan in 2011 by a loan worth 200 million soms provided by the Kyrgyz Finance Ministry (100 soms are equal to $2.1390 as of March 6). In 2012 Kyrgyz Finance Ministry will allocate a loan worth 150 million soms to Kyrgyzgaz, however, it plans to keep 50 million soms from this amount on the account of last year's loan repayment.
Thus, Shadiev asked Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Aaly Karashev to delay Kyrgyzgaz's debt repayment to Finance Ministry.
"We should repay our debt for natural gas to our neighbors in the near future," Shadiev said.
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