Stoen cuts off power to industrial clients who failed to pay

Warsaw's power distributor, Stoen, yesterday cut off the power supply to ZPC Ursus plant as well as a number of smaller companies, which were formed as a result of restructuring the tractor manufacturer. The head of Ursus, Stanisław Bortkiewicz, said this will lead to a several million złoty loss for the companies, as some of the plant's equipment was damaged when the power was switched off abruptly. Stoen decided on this radical step as Ursus has not been paying its energy bills. Bortkiewicz claims that the outstanding debts were not run up by the tractor plant, but by smaller companies in the area. The liabilities currently stand at zł. 40 million. Ursus earlier announced its readiness to grant assets of the same value to Stoen as a form of compensation for the unpaid bills. The proposal was rejected by the power distributor. (www.onet.pl; Parkiet, p. 5) A.K.