EVN wants to calculate the loss of more than 44,700 billion VND into electricity price: Experts recommend

By the end of 2024, EVN's accumulated loss will still be about VND44,792 billion, and the group wants this to be an expense allowed to be included in the average retail electricity price.

Average electricity price "carries" accumulated losses

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just completed the Draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 72/2025/ND-CP dated March 28, 2025 of the Government on the mechanism and time for adjusting the average retail electricity price, along with the Submission to seek opinions from relevant ministries, branches and units before submitting it to the Government for consideration.

In particular, the most notable content is that EVN recommends that Decree No. 72 should be amended and supplemented to allow the recovery of direct costs for electricity production and supply that have not been calculated and fully compensated in the previous average retail electricity price based on the results of the announcement of electricity production and business costs or annual audited financial statements.

"Retail electricity prices need to be resolved promptly for electricity units to recover sufficient costs, contributing to preserving and developing business capital of enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to draft a Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 72 to continue perfecting regulations on the mechanism and time for adjusting average retail electricity prices ," the document stated.

EVN proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade ask the Government to amend Decree 72 to adjust the average retail electricity price. (Illustration photo: EVN).

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the objective of drafting the Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 72 is to continue to perfect regulations on the mechanism for formulating, calculating and adjusting average retail electricity prices. This is to ensure that electricity prices closely reflect reality and are promptly updated according to fluctuations in input factors.

According to EVN's report, due to the impact of the global geopolitical situation, the high cost of purchasing electricity in the period of 2022 - 2023 led to many difficulties in EVN's production and business activities, the accumulated loss of these 2 years was about 50,029 billion VND. By the end of 2024, the accumulated loss of the parent company - EVN was still about 44,792 billion VND.

This leads to a decrease in State investment capital in EVN, which cannot preserve State investment capital in the enterprise. Therefore, if it is not calculated to recover in the electricity price, it will not be able to compensate in time for the decrease in State investment capital in the previous years.

Therefore, EVN proposed the Minister of Industry and Trade to report to the Prime Minister for permission to calculate this accumulated loss as an expense allowed to be included in the average retail electricity price.

Need to calculate carefully

Discussing this issue, experts said that EVN needs to publicly and transparently disclose detailed business information. At the same time, authorities must carefully calculate and clearly assess the impact of adjusting the average electricity price on the economy.

Dr. Le Dang Doanh said that adjusting the average electricity price will affect the production, import and export activities of enterprises and the lives of people. "Therefore, it is necessary to study and calculate how the adjustment of the average electricity price to resolve EVN's losses will have a specific impact and whether it will truly resolve EVN's business situation," said Mr. Doanh.

According to Mr. Doanh, instead of immediately approving the adjustment of the average retail electricity price, the Government and ministries should take measures to share EVN's losses. " We cannot blame all the losses of enterprises on the electricity price and ultimately on consumers. We need to establish a research team to carefully assess all impacts," Dr. Le Dang Doanh further proposed.

Sharing the same view, Dr. Ngo Tuan Kiet, Director of the Institute of Energy Technology, said that it is necessary to consider whether EVN's proposal is appropriate and based on what regulations.

“It is necessary to announce the basis for doing that, not just follow the opinions of the business unit. Because decisions based on reality will be supported by the people, but if they only come from the thinking of the manager, it will be difficult to accept. Therefore, it is necessary to publicly and transparently report. Then the State management agencies also need to have a detailed basis if they approve the proposal,” said Dr. Ngo Tuan Kiet.

Mr. Kiet also agreed that it is necessary to establish a group of experts to advise and evaluate the financial situation before approving the amendment of the Decree and adjusting the average retail electricity price.

“In principle, the loss-making business of many years ago should not be calculated to compensate for the average electricity price. In addition, the adjustment also needs to clearly answer the question: When will EVN stop paying the loss-making debt and when will production and business results be profitable so that the situation of increasing electricity prices according to business results will no longer exist?”, Dr. Ngo Tuan Kiet raised the issue.

Meanwhile, Dr. Vo Tri Thanh - former Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Research, Director of the Institute for Brand and Competition Strategy Research - said that amending the Decree is a completely normal thing for the Government and ministries to bring about information transparency in production and business activities of units and enterprises.

However, in the long run, any industry needs to move towards a competitive, transparent market. Vietnam is currently in dire need of electricity and energy. Therefore, we need large investments, not only from EVN but also from clean energy and renewable energy investors to make it attractive for them to invest.

“It can be said that the proposal to adjust the average retail electricity price is to ensure the growth target and harmonize other targets. Of course, the Government and ministries will carefully assess all impacts before deciding to adjust any Decree," said Dr. Vo Tri Thanh.

PHAM DUY

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/evn-muon-tinh-khoan-lo-hon-44-700-ty-dong-vao-gia-dien-chuyen-gia-khuyen-cao-ar960261.html