Proposal to add costs to electricity prices to reduce losses for EVN

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just completed the draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 72 on the mechanism and adjustment time, and submitted it to the Government for consideration.

The most notable point of the draft is the addition of a group of costs allowed to be calculated into electricity prices - including reasonable costs incurred but not fully calculated in previous adjustment periods.

Bộ Công Thương đề xuất bổ sung một số chi phí chưa được đưa vào giá điện trước đây khiến EVN thua lỗ vào giá bán lẻ điện bình quân sắp tới. — The Ministry of Industry and Trade has proposed adding some costs that were not previously included in electricity prices, causing EVN to incur losses, to the upcoming average retail electricity price.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the 2022-2023 period, Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) will be under great pressure as electricity purchase costs increase sharply due to geopolitical fluctuations and international fuel prices, causing cumulative losses over two years to reach more than VND50,000 billion. By the end of 2024, EVN will still have accumulated losses of about VND44,792 billion, directly affecting state investment capital in the group.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that without a mechanism to calculate and recover these costs, state capital will continue to be eroded, weakening EVN's financial capacity and posing potential risks to energy security. Therefore, the draft decree adds a provision allowing reasonable and valid costs that have not been included in the average retail electricity price to be included in the electricity price.

Specifically, it includes expenses directly serving the production and supply of electricity but not yet fully calculated and compensated in the retail electricity price of previous periods. These expenses will be determined based on the independently audited business performance results and annual financial statements of the parent company EVN from 2022 onwards.

Along with that, there is the difference in the re-evaluated or unallocated exchange rate, not accounted for and paid to power plants according to the power purchase contract. The calculation and allocation will be planned by EVN and reported to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for consideration.

If necessary, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will consult with the Ministry of Finance before making a decision. The Ministry of Industry and Trade affirmed that the amendment aims to create conditions for electricity enterprises to recover sufficient reasonable costs, while still ensuring the principles of transparency, publicity and feasibility.

The draft does not create any new administrative procedures, but only clarifies the allowable expenses to ensure correct and complete calculation in electricity price adjustment. If approved, the new regulation will help EVN and power units quickly solve the problem of recovering pending expenses, consolidate finances, thereby maintaining stable electricity supply for the economy. However, this also means that the average retail electricity price in the upcoming adjustment periods may increase due to additional costs.

For the economy, adding costs to electricity prices will create certain pressure on manufacturing enterprises and consumers, but the Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that this is a necessary step to ensure the financial safety of the electricity sector and national energy security in the context of an increasingly volatile market.

The draft amendment to Decree 72 is not only a technical solution to the mechanism for adjusting electricity prices, but also an important policy move to completely resolve EVN's long-standing costs.

tienphong.vn

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/de-xuat-bo-sung-chi-phi-vao-gia-dien-de-giam-lo-cho-evn-post879851.html