Vietnam reduces electricity prices to mitigate Covid-19 havoc

The government of Vietnam will cut electricity prices by 10% for slect buyers in April, May, and June as part of efforts to ease burden caused to citizens and businesses by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Electricity price reduction aims to ease burden caused by the pandemic

The Ministry of Industry and Trade made the proposal and will issue an official decision on the reduction in the next few days, according to VnExpress.

Under the proposal, the discount of 10% would be applied to bills of households with consumption below 300 kWh/month. The same reduction would be for businesses and tourism facilities.

Establishments used for mass quarantine or treatment of suspected and confirmed Covid-19 patients would be exempted from paying electricity bills while medical facilities that provide medical checkup, testing, and treatment of the same subjects would receive a 20% discount in electricity prices.

Under which, hotels and tourist facilities that have been used for quarantine would also be entitled to a 20% reduction.

According to the ministry, the total reduction of this support package would be nearly VND11 trillion (US$470 million), including VND6.1 trillion (US$262.9 million) for businesses, VND2.9 trillion (US$125 million) for households, VND1.8 trillion (US$77.6 million) for tourist facilities, and VND100 billion (US$4.3 million) for establishments taking part in the fight against the pandemic.

Currently, the average electricity price in Vietnam is VND1,864 (8.1 US cent)/kWh.

In comparison with regional countries, the price of power for household use in Vietnam is 9.67 US cent/kWh compared to 9.34 US cent in Malaysia, 11 US cent in Indonesia, 12.7 US cent in Thailand, 15.6 US cent in the Philippines, and 16.73 US cent in Singapore.

State-run Vietnam Electricity (EVN) is the country's sole power distributor.