The Ministry of Industry and Trade is considering an electricity price hike following the huge loss reported by state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) for last year.
“The rate and time of the increase will be considered carefully to safeguard the benefits of EVN, the public and businesses and control inflation,” Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai told VnExpress recently.
The ministry said last week that EVN’s costs rose by 9.27% last year, and it caused a loss of VND36.29 trillion (US$1.55 billion).
Deputy CEO of EVN, Nguyen Xuan Nam, said the huge loss puts the company in a difficult financial situation, and so it has sought a hike in tariffs this year.
According to estimates by the Ministry of Finance, if power tariffs increase by 5% this year the consumer price index will see a 3.9% increase.
Hikes of 7% and 8% will push the CPI up by 4.4% and 4.8%.
The government targets containing inflation at 4.5%.
The prices consumers pay have remained unchanged since March 2019.