Next week the Upper Silesian energy concern GZE has announced that it will turn the electricity off for three coal companies which have around PLN75m owing. The debtors are hoping to find an agreement.
This is a major step forward for the GZE which has PLN370m in likely bad debts.
Torbjörn Wahlborg, the deputy managing director of the GZE and representative of the Swedish investor Vattenfall said that he came to an agreement with the coal companies but their debts have increased since then and that he no longer has any choice.
GZE has already cut power on a number of occasions to other mines with the most recent being on Tuesday.
In February last year Vattenfall took a 25 percent stake in the GZE. The privatisation agreement sees the Swedes increasing their stake to seventy percent by 2003. Last year receipts of the GZE came to PLN2.5bn. Representatives of the coal industry are complaining about the GZE expecting payments too quickly. Sixty day payment terms are normal in the coal industry and they say that GZE expects its cash within ten.