Electricity bills surge at least 35%

The longer month resulted in an increase of 10.7% in electricity consumption, while the higher power demand due to hot weather caused electricity bills to inch up by some 16%.

The highest electricity volume consumed in a day was 63.4 million kilowatt hours in Hanoi and 90.04 kilowatt hours in HCMC.

As of April 26, up to 57.2% of households in HCMC saw their electricity bills rising by over 30% over the previous month.

According to EVN, it received some 13,000 complaints from local consumers over the increase in electricity bills from March 20 — the day the upward power price adjustment took effect — to April 26. To ensure customers’ rights and interests, EVN will reexamine their electricity bills.

EVN also asked the directors of power companies to proactively deal with customers’ complaints within 24 hours. Since March 20, EVN has assisted its customers with calculating their electricity bills themselves through https://www.evn.com.vn/c3/calc/Cong-cu-tinh-hoa-don-tien-dien-9-172.aspx and on their smartphones.

According to many experts, the surge in electricity bills was due to the electricity bill calculation method of progressive tariffs regulated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Circular 16/2014. Accordingly, there are six levels of power consumption and the price of electricity at higher levels is higher than that at lower levels.

In 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed amending the electricity bill calculation method by applying an average electricity price or reducing the electricity consumption rate to three levels. However, the proposal has been put on hold.