PLN threatens to cut electricity connection to companies rejecting tariff increase
Monday, September 4 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
State electricity company PT PLN has threatened to cut electricity connection lines to industries that refused to heed this year's electricity tariff increase.
In a letter to the chairman of the National Business Development Council, dated August 18, PLN president said that PLN would be forced to cut electricity supplies to defiant industries because their unpaid debt to PLN had reached Rp 300 billion per month.
At the same time, demands for electricity from industrial companies continued to increase at a rate of around 10 percent this year, and this forces PLN to provide new investment to build new transmission lines, and possibly also in power generation.
Kuntoro said that PLN's offer for negotiations and various packages to businesses that faced difficulties to meet the tariff increase had bee translated differently by business associations, especially the association of textile companies (API).
He noted that API had made a move that inflicted losses for PLN by encouraging its members not to heed the electricity tariff increase, and this results in their higher due debts to PLN.
In the letter, Kuntoro also said that PLN could not negotiate with the associations, but with businesses that signed contracts with PLN.
Commenting on the letter, API secretary general Irwandi Muslim said that what his association had done was asking the government and PLN to postpone the implementation of the tariff increase.
Irwandi contended that the basic electricity tariff increase of 80 percent to 101 percent was still burdensome for businesses, especially API members. (*)