Vietnam's electricity price to remain the same until December at least

The public has been reassured that the Vietnam's electricity price increase won’t be decided in the last months of the year.

The information that the Electricity of Vietnam has proposed the Ministry of Industry and Tradeto allow raising the has raised a stir recently.

The Electricity of Vietnam is seeking the permission for the 10-13 percent electricity price increase. And if the plan is approved by MOIT and the Ministry of Finance, the new electricity prices would increase to 1403 dong per kwh from the current 1242 dong per kwh.

If the EVN’s proposal is accepted, this will be the second electricity price increase so far this year. Prior to that, in March 2011, the electricity price was once raised by 15.28 percent, also following an EVN’s proposal.

EVN said the sale prices are not high enough to cover expenses.

The powerful economic group has reported the loss of 3 trillion dong which has been caused by many factors. One of the reasons is that EVN has to buy electricity at high prices from some independent power plants and sells at the prices fixed by the State.

Furthermore, there are instances when EVN has to use oil to generate power.

Also, the dong/dollar exchange rate decision by the State Bank of Vietnam has also brought loss to EVN. The power group has also reported losses from the investments in non-power investment sectors.