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N. Sumatrans refuse to pay electricity bills in protest
An activist admitted that he had encouraged his fellow North Sumatra residents to join him in not paying their electricity bills this month as a sign of protest against the state-owned electricity company PT PLN's inability to prevent the blackouts that have regularly happened over the past few months
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n activist admitted that he had encouraged his fellow North Sumatra residents to join him in not paying their electricity bills this month as a sign of protest against the state-owned electricity company PT PLN's inability to prevent the blackouts that have regularly happened over the past few months.
'I'll be the first man to not pay this month's electricity bill. This is an act of protest from a disappointed customer over continuous blackouts over the last four months,' the Customer Protection and Advocacy Institution's director Farid Wajdi said on Tuesday.
Beforehand, the an Indonesian business association had filed a petition, garnering a million signatures petitioning the government and PLN to fix the problem, which had caused them great financial losses as they tried to run their businesses.
Commenting on the situation, PLN spokesman Raidir Sigalingging said he expected the people wouldn't be provoked by the call to not pay their bills. He said PLN wouldn't hesitate to cut off their power if they dared to do so.
'We are not doing it [the blackouts] in purpose. Everything happens for a reason, and in this case we are forced to do blackouts because there is a serious deficit in electricity. We've been working all out to fix this problem. Let's hope that everything will be back to normal again by November,' he said.(dic)
