Experts say that the electricity industry needs to reform the price mechanism, so that people do not have to cross-subsidize production, and people who use more compensate for using less.
In the Prime Minister's draft Decision on electricity retail price structure sent to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal, the Ministry of Industry and Trade keeps the method of calculating household electricity bills shortened from 6 to 5 steps. The cheapest level is calculated for households using less than 100 kWh instead of the current 50 kWh, while the highest level is from 701 kWh or more.
Electricity prices for steps 1-5 are calculated progressively, equal to 90-180% of the average retail electricity price of 2.006,79 VND per kWh (adjusted rate from November 9). Thus, the lowest price (level 11) is about 1 VND per kWh and the highest (level 1.806) is 5 VND per kWh (excluding VAT).
The electricity price for the first 100 kWh is maintained to support the poor and policy households (nearly 33,5% of the total number of households using electricity). The difference in reduced electricity revenue of these households will be compensated by households using 401-700 kWh and over 700 kWh. That is, electricity prices at high levels (from 400 kWh or more) are designed to offset revenue for low levels, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Policies to support electricity bills for poor households and social policy households are still maintained, with the level of electricity support equivalent to usage level being 30 kWh.
EVN staff checks the system. Image: Ngoc Thanh
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the 5-step electricity tariff plan was approved by 92,2% of comments, with only 7,8% agreeing with the plan to shorten it to 4 steps. At the same time, the progressive pricing method aims to encourage electricity saving, partly limit the increase in electricity bills during the changing seasons, the difference between levels 1-5 is 2 times in accordance with the general trend of the world. .
Experts assess that the above tariff will have a direct impact on households that consume a lot of electricity. That is, the more electricity households use, the higher the progressive price at each step, directly affecting households using 401 kWh or more.
"This is not in accordance with the principles of a competitive electricity market," said Dr. Ngo Duc Lam, former Deputy Director of the Institute of Energy (Ministry of Industry and Trade). He believes that cross-subsidizing electricity prices between households that use a lot and households that use a little is not appropriate.
Experts citing Decree 55/2020 of the Politburo said that Vietnam aims to remove all barriers to ensure transparent energy prices, determined by the market, without cross-subsidy between customer groups and regions. domain. The state regulates through market tools such as taxes, fees, funds and social security policies.
"People who use little electricity and poor households have policies to support electricity prices, but it is not possible to take money from households that use a lot of electricity to compensate for households that use little electricity," he said. Experts propose eliminating the ladder tariff and applying a one-price electricity calculation method, according to the competitive market.
"In the true sense, heavy users must get discounts, that is a competitive market, like any other goods," he analyzed, adding that the progressive calculation has not been proven to help save electricity. Because, in addition to people, other sectors, including the electricity industry and manufacturing enterprises, must also save money by innovating technology, improving efficiency, and avoiding waste.
Sharing the same opinion, economic expert, Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh (Academy of Finance) said that in the long term, the electricity industry needs a fundamental change, aiming to implement a competitive electricity market roadmap.
Not only does it cross-compensate for low electricity users, Dr. Ngo Duc Lam also said that the fairness and transparency factors set out over the past few years have not changed, consumers are still paying electricity to compensate for production according to the new tariff.
In the draft, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to combine and add voltage levels for production and business customer groups. The calculation of electricity prices for this group will not include the costs of electricity distribution and retail. Therefore, the normal hourly electricity price will be 78-90% of the average retail electricity price; Off-peak hours will be 52-67% of the average retail electricity price and peak hours will be 139-165% of the average retail electricity price.
In addition, the group of tourist accommodation establishments is proposed to apply production electricity prices, which are lower than the current level. This change is intended to encourage the tourism industry to develop, increase budget revenue and transform economic structure. However, this missing revenue will have to be compensated, so the drafting agency is considering a proposal to compensate from the electricity price for off-peak hours of the manufacturing customer group.
The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor also believes that the electricity price mechanism is not reasonable, because the electricity price paid by people for daily use is higher than the electricity price paid by businesses. This agency cited that electricity for production was at times equal to 52% of the average price, while the price for poor households with the biggest incentives and policies was also equal to 90% of the average price. Similarly, there is still cross-subsidy between households that use a lot of compensation and use a little, and between regions.
Similarly, the Vietnam Electricity Association believes that the retail electricity price structure needs to ensure that household electricity prices are not higher than electricity prices for production and tourism services, meaning that domestic electricity prices are not used to compensate.
Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said it will consider applying electricity prices that accurately and fully reflect the production and business costs of the customer group. At the same time, the electricity industry can experiment with proposing two-component electricity prices according to the correct capacity and power to apply to customers using electricity for production at 2 kV level or higher before officially applying.
Associate Professor, PhD. Ngo Tri Long, former Director of the Price Market Research Institute, commented that when amending regulations, authorities need to avoid the situation where people using electricity have to cross-compensate for production but still use outdated technology.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment also noted that the revision of the electricity retail tariff structure should comply with electricity regulations, encourage economical use of energy, and gradually eliminate vehicles and equipment with outdated technology. , low energy efficiency.
According to an expert in the field of pricing, to thoroughly solve current problems, the electricity industry needs to continue to reform the retail price mechanism towards a competitive market, applying retail electricity prices on the basis of agreement with customers. At the same time, this industry must continue to restructure, separating the function of providing natural monopoly services of the industry including transmission, distribution, system operation and electricity market from the units participating in competition. .
Phuong Dung
