Uzbekistan is claiming Kyrgyzstan is not paying up on a $3 million dollar gas bill, CentralAsian news wire reported.
Uzbektransgaz announced on Wednesday that it has not received "even a penny of $3 million of debt owed by Kyrgyzstan as of December 15."
Kyrgyzstan signed a contract for 2010 to pay $240 for every thousand cubic meters of gas.
Negotiations have been held for 2011, but no document has been signed and the amount to be paid has not been released.
And one anonymous source in the Kyrgyz government told 24.kg that negotiations between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are at a stalemate over the new contract. Deputy Prime Minister Amangeldy Muraliev is slated to travel to Tashkent next week to resume negotiations on 2011 gas deliveries for a proposed rate of $140 per thousand cubic meters. CentralAsian news wire reported.
Kyrgyz gas officials, however, claimed they were ready to pay the debt.
"Just yesterday the company's management ordered to repay all debts for the Uzbek partners, and as far as I know, we will settle the whole amount of debt today," the Bishkek-based 24.kg news agency reported Kyrgyzgaz official spokesman Eugene Orlenko as saying on Wednesday.
Uzbekistan is not the only regional country that is owed money by the troubled republic. Kyrgyzstan also owes Kazakhstan's KazTranzGas almost $18 million.
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