PKP not paying for repairs
Most of the ZNTK companies which repair rolling stock are on the verge on bankruptcy. The problem is in getting paid from their main client, railway operator PKP, which now owes them PLN150m.
The railway operator was to have paid PLN40m by the end of this month and the rest in April. That is not looking very likely, given the desperate condition of institutions that owe PKP money such as Huta Katowice. This steelworks owes around PLN400m — PLN500m and part of this cash was to have been used to pay ZNTK.
Wiesław Protasewicz, deputy head of the PKP's accounting section says that he is trying his best to pay either in cash or in other ways and that the debt is dropping.
ZNTK sees things differently complaining of not having received a grosz at all this year. The only thing they have received is in barter, for example by getting products from steel mills which owe money to PKP although unfortunately neither their employees nor the taxation authorities accept this form of payment.
Alojzy Oracz, MD of ZNTK Nowy Sącz says that the PKP's debts have made their situation worse and the company does not have the resources to pay either taxation nor wages.
Lidia Dudziak of the Solidarity trade union's rail section says that the PKP can only offer debt obligations which lose at least ten percent on realisation. She says that the situation in all the ZNTK plants is clo