Electricity Price Proposed to Rise by 8.8 per cent on Average in 2006
A working team under Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry (MoI) last week proposed an average increase of 8.8 per cent in electricity price to VND852/kWh (US$0.05) this year, around 6 per cent lower than those suggested by the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN).
EVN had earlier proposed an average increase of 14.8 per cent to VND898/kWh.
The team also submitted four schemes on electricity price hikes for this year to the MoI for consideration.
The first scheme aims to cushion three types of users – industrial producers, electricity wholesalers in rural areas, and low-income households who use less than 100 kWh per month. The remainders (consuming 25 per cent of total commercial electricity output) will burden an average increase of 20 per cent. A 35 per cent rise will be applied for users of from 100kWh per month.
The second option suggests a 20 per cent rise on all users during peak time while keeping it unchanged for industrial production during normal and off-peak hours. Wholesale price of electricity for daily life in rural areas will increase to VND410/kWh (up 5 per cent from the current level). Daily consumption of 100 kWh per month will pay VND600/kWh for the first 50kWh and VND750/kWh for the following 50kWh. An increase of between 12-18 per cent in the price will be applied for daily consumption of over 100 kWh per month.
The third scheme proposes raising the price of the first 100 kWh in daily consumption to VND630/kWh, with households paying just over VND8,000 (US$0.5) per month at most.
Price of electricity for industrial production would edge up 4 per cent while daily consumption will be raised an average of 17 per cent.
The last scheme aims to level out differences in daily production rates in rural and urban areas, with the rates of the first 100 kWh used by both groups lifted to VND700/kWh.
Rural families currently pay some VND700/ kWh while those in cities using the same amount of energy pay only VND550/kWh.
Under the scheme, price of electricity used for industrial production would also rise by 4 per cent.
P.V
Vietnamese
