Workers of Vietnam Electricity check household power consumption on meters. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry of Industry and Trade(MoIT) is considering allowing households to choose a common retail power pricefor their electricity consumption, said Deputy Minister Hoang Quoc Vuong.
He said last week that the ministry is studying a newcalculation for power prices. Accordingly, households could choose one of twoways: a common price and the current tiered pricing mechanism. However, thecurrent six tiers would be reduced to five as it ensures all households withpower consumption of less than 700 kWh (98.2 percent of the total) would not besee increased power bills.
“Each calculation has its own advantages and disadvantages.It is the reason we should have an overall calculation. With the current tieredpricing mechanism, low-income earners with power consumption of less than 300kWh have more benefits,” he added.
He said that if customers choose the common power priceoption, the revenue of the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) would be reduced.However, no matter the price option, in terms of the total revenue oncommercial electricity, the retail price obtained is equal to the average priceto ensure the harmony of benefits.
Currently, many countries have applied the tiered pricingmechanism. Some, however, are applying a fixed retail price. For example, inSingapore, the power price for households is only 24.39 cents a kWh. However,this price is adjusted every three months to reflect changes in electricitycosts.
In Germany, the electricity price is not regulated by theState but by each company. The price difference among power distributioncompanies is not large. In addition to the electricity bills, people have topay an extra 100 EUR each year for electricity and other services.
Similarly, in New Zealand there are about 20power supply units. Electricity prices are not calculated according to thetiered pricing mechanism but agreement between customers and companies.
Electricity tariffs usually include price per kWh along with daily managementfees and other costs.
The surge in power bills in the past two months has surprisedcustomers. Of which, the calculation of the current six tiers in power priceshas been one of reasons contributing to the surge.
The MoIT planned to collect opinions on the reduction fromcurrent six to five tiers in power pricing mechanism. However, it asked topostpone the revision to the end of this year due to COVID-19./.
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