Unpaid power bills owed to national electricity firm Tenaga Nasional ballooned to a massive RM2.2 billion at the end of last year, local media said today.

Around 37 percent of the defaulters were industrial consumers, Bernama news agency reported, while the StarBiz newspaper said five big companies, including one believed to be in the steel business, owed around RM852 million.

"We are concerned about the major consumers that have outstanding bills with us and we want to remind them to be more responsible," Tenaga chairman Leo Moggie was quoted as saying by StarBiz .

He added that firm action would be taken against long-standing defaulters.

Asked if cutting off power supply to major defaulters was being considered, he said it was one of the options being looked into.

In its last fiscal year to August 31 2003, Tenaga posted pretax profit of RM1.72 billion on revenue of RM16.46 billion.