PLN to take naughty customers to bankruptcy court

State electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has again threatened to take its naughty customers to bankruptcy court if they continue to delay the payment of their electricity bills, Bisnis Indonesia reported Tuesday.

PLN’s marketing director, Sunggu Anwar Aritonang, said in Jakarta on Monday that the state electricity firm had no choice but to send the naughty customers to the bankruptcy court if they gave no response to the company’s legal warning.

He said PLN had issued a legal warning to at least 10 big corporate customers in Java for not giving any response to its persuasive approach to pay their arrears. “The legal action through the bankruptcy court will be taken if they did not heed the legal warning,” he added.

Sunggu did not mention the amount of the arrears of these big customers but he said that the company’s outstanding unpaid bills had reached a total of Rp 600 billion at present. The amount was far below the Rp 1.3 trillion recorded at the end of 2003. (*)