Electricity prices 'crushing' consumers
The average retail electricity price increase of 6.08% will cause electricity bills of many households to increase significantly, especially the costs of businesses at the end of the year.
Worry about commodity prices "slapping" with electricity prices
Last October, Ms. Kim Yen's family (living in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City) had to pay a total of VND870,579 for electricity for a usage of 395 kWh. This December, if using the same amount of electricity, Ms. Kim Yen's family will have to pay nearly VND930,000, an increase of VND60,000.
“What I fear more is that all other goods will increase with the electricity price, then the daily market price will be affected many times over, not just a few tens of thousands of dong for electricity alone. Many people’s meals will become poorer,” Ms. Kim Yen shared.
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| Monthly electricity bills for people and businesses will increase. |
Mr. Hung's family, a farmer living in Tu Nghia District (Quang Ngai), is very worried. Every month, his family uses electricity very sparingly, without air conditioning or washing machines, but only uses a small refrigerator, a TV and a few light bulbs, but the monthly electricity bill is still more than 300,000 VND. Mr. Hung does not know exactly how much he will have to pay in the future, but if it increases by just a few tens of thousands of VND, it is worrying.
There is no transparency Economist Le Dang Doanh also commented that the reason why electricity prices have increased but have not received support from many classes of people is because there is still a lack of transparency. Many figures published by EVN have not been independently audited. This makes the electricity industry unable to create trust for customers. Moreover, the most important thing is to consider how reasonable the retail electricity price is when compared to people's income, not comparing it with foreign electricity prices. “To avoid depending on EVN or having to pay a lot of money for electricity, businesses need to boldly apply technology to save energy. They can invest in solar power to use electricity, especially businesses in the South and Central regions, where the number of hours of sunshine per year is very high,” Dr. Le Dang Doanh added. |
Enterprises are also having to recalculate production costs when electricity prices go up. Ms. Le Thi Thanh Lam, Deputy General Director of Saigon Food Company, estimated that the company's monthly electricity bill will increase by about VND200 million according to the new price, and the company's production costs will increase by about 0.3%. Ms. Lam emphasized: This is a significant increase while enterprises are always looking for ways to reduce production costs. "We are in the peak season of preparing to produce goods to supply for the end of the year and Lunar New Year, so we will have to endure. We cannot increase prices at this time because we do not want to affect purchasing power. At the same time, we want to wait for the price of materials to increase before recalculating the cost. But certainly after Tet, enterprises will also have to consider adjusting selling prices because they cannot bear it for too long. All impacts will eventually be borne by consumers," Ms. Lam said.
Saigon Paper Corporation is paying about 10 billion VND for electricity each month, and it is estimated that with an average increase of 6.08%, the company will have to increase by 500 - 600 million VND per month. Mr. Cao Tien Vi, General Director of the company, analyzed: Not only will the electricity price increase, but all goods will also increase in price, affecting the production costs of the company many times over. Not to mention that since the beginning of 2018, some new regulations such as insurance policies have been applied, causing labor costs to increase sharply. At Saigon Paper Corporation alone, labor costs will increase by more than 20 billion VND/year.
“Increased costs eat away at all the profits of businesses. And to survive, businesses will have to increase their selling prices. As a result, Vietnamese goods will be less competitive with imported goods, purchasing power will decrease, and businesses will face many difficulties...”, Mr. Cao Tien Vi confided.
Not reasonable
Dr. Bui Trinh analyzed: According to the data published by the General Statistics Office, the ratio between workers' income and added value in Vietnam is currently about 80%. This means that Vietnam must spend a huge amount of capital to achieve added value. The increase in electricity prices will further narrow production resources, making Vietnam's economy even more sluggish.
Meanwhile, the electricity industry is not losing money, wages and profits remain high, even higher than many other industries. “If production costs increase, consumer prices will inevitably increase and the whole society will have to bear the burden. Has the electricity industry calculated the losses in its operations? Who is responsible? It is unreasonable to force people to bear all the losses,” said Dr. Bui Trinh.
According to thanhnien.vn