More setbacks and delays for power sector privatization

The planned merger of the, Belchatow, Opole and Turow power plants may not come to fruition, the Deputy Treasury Minister Andrzej Szarawarski said on Thursday. However, the Ministry says it has already found an alternative, b ut would not reveal any details. Under the Treasury Ministry the three plan ts and brown coal mines in Belchatow and Turow were to be merged to form one entity called BOT that would later be floated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). However, the restructuring is hampered by the Belchatow power plant and mine employees who are afraid that the cost of the merger would aggrava te the financial standing of the cheapest energy producer. The Ministry also announced that Poludniowy Koncern Energetyczny's (PKE) planned debut on the WSE might be delayed even till 2005, as the group needs to restructure and increase output before it goes private (Parkiet, p. 3) J.K