(Bloomberg) -- The Czech government urged Liberty Steel to return money owed to its unit in the country as a way to resume production at the troubled steel mill and satisfy local employees and creditors.

Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela said on Wednesday that a meeting with Liberty owner Sanjeev Gupta had failed to answer the cabinet’s questions about his plans for the Czech facility. The tycoon must repay about €400 million ($433 million) his other businesses abroad owe to the Liberty Ostrava unit, Sikela told reporters.

“I can say that the result of today’s meeting was a big disappointment for me,” the minister said. 

Gupta declined reporters’ requests for comment as he left the talks held at the Finance Ministry building in downtown Prague.

Czech leaders are stepping up pressure on Gupta after his local factory got court-ordered protection from creditors until June, halted most operations and told a majority of its almost 5,000 employees to stay at home on 70% pay. The facility owes money to dozens of local suppliers and business partners, threatening their viability, according to Sikela.

The government is involved in talks about the overhaul plans as the state is one of the creditors of the steelworks.

The factory has an annual capacity of about 3.6 million metric tons of products for construction, machinery and oil and gas industries. Last year, it presented a plan to restart a blast furnace and increase output in expectations of a recovery on the European steel market, but most of its facilities remain dormant, according to the CTK newswire.

“We reiterated the urgent need to return the money to the company as soon as possible,” said Sikela. “We demanded an explanation of why this had happened and what the plan was going forward. We didn’t get that explanation.”

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