Ministry of Industry and Trade is currently examining the financial audit report of 2012 of Vietnam Electricity--the country’s largest power company--and possibility of a hike in price, said Dinh The Phuc, deputy head of the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam.
He was speaking at a regular press conference hosted by the Ministry on July 1 in response to press queries related to a recent proposal from the National Financial Supervisory Commission to hike electricity price by 10-15 percent.
According to Mr. Phuc, power price will be adjusted when there are changes in cost price, material price or in the exchange rate.
Mr. Phuc said that if it is necessary to raise the price, the Ministry will carefully calculate a suitable rate in order not to affect the Government target to curb inflation and stabilize socio-economy.
The Ministry is also looking into another proposal to charge higher electricity prices from businesses in the steel and cement industries, which consumed upto 11.5 percent of commercial electricity last year.
Higher electricity price will prompt businesses in these two industries to move to better technology to save energy, he said.
Another matter of public importance was the petrol price hike, as domestic retail price hiked on two occasions in the last two weeks despite drop in world price.
Nguyen Xuan Chien, deputy head of Domestic Market Department, an organ under the Industry and Trade Ministry, said that data from his Ministry and the Ministry of Finance shows that world petrol price was on the rising trend in June.
Specifically, the price of Ron 92 gasoline was $111.08 a barrel on May 31 and increased to $112.9 a barrel on June 13 and $114.442 a barrel on June 27.
Mr. Chien said that the domestic retail price increase was in accordance with Government regulations. The Ministries of Finance, and Industry and Trade also permitted businesses to dip into the price subsidization fund to minimize impact of the hike.
