International Court of Arbitration has ordered Tanzania to pay $185 million to the Hong Kong subsidiary of Standard Chartered for breaching an energy contract. The Tanzanian government and privately-owned independent power producer IPTL has been waging a legal battle on this issue since 2014. Standard Chartered bank had approached World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes for intervention with a compensation demand of $352.5.On its part, the government of Tanzania denied any liability to pay for the damages. “Neither the government nor (state power company) TANESCO, have a legal liability in these cases,” said a spokesperson from Tanzanian Government and added that the government’s role will be to supervise the payment by IPTL .
Tanzania faces two more multi-million claims from international investors. For breach of contract U.S. firm, Symbion Power has sued for compensation in 2017 seeking $561 million from TANESCO.In the same year, a Canadian construction firm seized one of Tanzania’s new Q400 turboprop planes in Canada over a $38 million lawsuit related to a compensation ruling by the International Court of Arbitration. Later, Tanzania reached a settlement to secure the aircraft, which was released on March 2018.
