OREANDA-NEWS. IDGC of Centre is planning to apply to the arbitration court for protection of business reputation. The reason for filing a lawsuit was the statement of "LESK", published on the website of the company that "Lipetskenergo" (a branch of IDGC of Centre) seeks to shift the blame for the wrong operation of metering systems to "LESK" and get 1.7 billion rubles at the expense of residents of the Lipetsk region.

IDGC of Centre believes that the statements of OJSC "LESK" on additional charges in receipts of the population are populism and playing with the public opinion. In practice, these methods are clearly defined, namely - "non-procedural form of the struggle for the decision of the case, the extensive use of the media to put pressure on the court". According to IDGC of Centre the release of this statement is not accidental and may be related to the upcoming court sessions, as currently there are about 80 lawsuits of "Lipetskenergo" to LESK in the courts of different instances under consideration.

It is worth noting that "Lipetskenergo" is not engaged in any calculations of payments or accruals of funds for consumed electricity. Moreover, in mutual settlements with "LESK" and "Lipetskenergo" other tariffs are applied for the same amount of energy than those on which OJSC "LESK" has settlements consumers. So that the amount of debt that in the court is seen as controversial between the grid and sales companies has nothing to do with the receipts of those consumers who pay for electricity based on a verified metering device operating properly.

According to experts of "Lipetskenergo", the supplier of last resort - OJSC "LESK" in pursuit of purely personal financial interests unilaterally imposes a payment of an additional amount for electricity losses, which is not confirmed by documents and not recognized by either the branch of IDGC of Centre or the court. The company notes that the cash received from consumers LESK retains, and instead sends to the grid company notifications on offset counter claims on the same "sham" amount of losses, which the supplier of last resort identified on the basis of its financial needs. It is beneficial for OJSC "LESK" to delay the payment, even taking into account the fact that later the amount will be charged on the writ of execution. Thus, IDGC of Centre credits the sales company for the period, while there are legal proceedings (at least 9 months and often years) and in the amount that is almost arbitrarily indicated by "LESK" as "losses".

IDGC of Centre - Lipetskenergo division has positive experience of conducting litigation with OJSC "LESK". So the share of satisfied requirements of "Lipetskenergo" in 2015 - 2016 on the court decisions, which came into force, is almost 100%, which corresponds to 12 cases worth a total of 738 million rubles. The monetary funds were transferred to the company’s account in full.