HANOI: The Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) is asking consumers for their opinion on the recalculation of current retail power tariff levels to provide better service to them.
The group said the purpose of the change was to replace the level-based pricing scheme which was said to be too complicated, in which the more power people consumed, the more they had to pay. EVN has announced three different ways to calculate power consumption, it said in an announcement on Wednesday.
The first option is to keep the current six tariff-level mechanism, in which tariff remains unchanged between VND1,484 and VND2,587 per kWh.
The second plan is to apply a flat rate to the pricing, with a suggested charge of VND1,747 per kWh, which is the average of the six level electricity price in the current pricing scheme. The last one is to keep a level pricing mechanism, but with fewer levels.
The flat rate of VND1,747 per kWh, would upset consumers who use less than 240 kWh a month, as they would no longer be able to enjoy the low prices of VND1,484 and VND1,533 a kWh.
Such pricing would benefit large power consumers, while hurting low-income earners, according to the EVN. For the third proposed pricing scheme, there would be either three or four levels to calculate electricity prices, and EVN has five different scenarios for this mechanism.
One of the five is that the first level would be VND1,501 per kWh for consumption of less than 100 kWh a month, while the second and third level would be VND1,907 per kWh (less than 200 kWh a month) and VND2,557 per kWh (less than 300kWh a month).
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the EVN should prepare a pricing plan that will not greatly affect needy and low-income consumers, while encouraging people to save energy.
The EVN has welcomed comments, feedback and suggestions regarding the three proposed pricing schemes. It also planned to organise conferences and seminars to collect ideas from experts and industry insiders in September and October. The final plan will be submitted to the ministry in November then to the Prime Minister.
