Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the country’s power utility company, said Wednesday that ex-officials of the former government and state institutions owe 12 billion afghanis (AFN) in unpaid electricity debt.

The head of DABS has warned the ex-officials that if they do not pay the electricity consumption fee, their houses and assets will be seized.

Last year, DABS announced that it had collected $681 million dollars in debt from former officials and commercial and industrial companies.

Head of Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), Abdul Bari Omar, said Tuesday that the utility company pays for their imported power on the 27th and 28th of every month.

According to Omar, the company is up-to-date on its payments.

Last year, DABS's spokesperson said the company had settled debt totaling $627 million that had been carried over from the former government.

This money was paid to Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Iran.

Omar stated that in the last three months, energy production projects worth $400 million have been put into operation and other projects are on the agenda.

According to him, these projects include wind, gas, coal and solar energy initiatives.

On the Kajaki dam in Helmand, he said the dam will be able to produce 150 megawatts of electricity within the next year.

While efforts are being made to increase electricity production, Afghans continue to struggle with little or no power.

At present, 950 megawatts of electricity is consumed annually in the country, of which just over 300 megawatts is produced domestically and the balance is imported from neighboring countries.

Opium cultivation rose by 19 percent in Afghanistan this year, the UN reported Wednesday, despite a ban by the Islamic Emirate that almost eradicated the crop.

According to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), there are currently 12,800 hectares of poppies being cultivated in Afghanistan.

The 19 percent increase year-on-year remains far below the 232,000 hectares cultivated when the IEA’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada banned the crop in April 2022.

UNODC also stated that the center of poppy cultivation has shifted and is now concentrated in northeastern provinces instead of in the south.

The agency stated that following the poppy ban, prices soared for the resin from which opium and heroin are made.

During the first half of 2024, prices stabilized around $730 per kilogram, according to UNODC, compared to about $100 per kg before 2022.

For years Afghanistan was the world's biggest supplier of opium and heroin.

Many farmers in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, were hit hard financially by the ban and have not been able to reap the same profits from alternative crops.

Even legal crops are only a short-term solution, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG), "so the focus should be on job creation in non-farm industries".

The UNODC and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) called for international support for farmers to transition to alternative crops and livelihoods, something the IEA government has requested.

The head of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) political office in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, met with China’s ambassador to Qatar late Monday for talks on bilateral relations, good neighborliness, and trade and investment opportunities between the two countries.

“About the Wakhan road, the export of Afghanistan's fresh fruit to China, the reconstruction of cold stores, China's assistance in the field of medical equipment to the Ministry of Health and good neighborliness between the two countries were discussed,” Shaheen said in a voice message.

China and the Islamic Emirate have been rapidly expanding relations in recent months.

Experts, meanwhile, have said that other countries need to engage with the IEA, as China is doing, in order for Afghanistan to come out of isolation.

Shaheen also met with Katharina Ritz, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation to Afghanistan.

He discussed numerous issues including humanitarian assistance, health sector challenges and climate change.

Both sides emphasized that ICRC activities need to be expanded, considering the needs of the people.