Mr. Vo Quang Lam - Deputy General Director of EVN
Reporter: Sir, how has the reduction in electricity price, electricity bill for people and businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic implemented by EVN?
Mr. Vo Quang Lam: Complying with the request by Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) to support the reduction in electricity price, electricity bill for customers affected by COVID-19 pandemic, EVN has promptly directed Power General Corporations /Electricity Companies to update accurately and fully relevant data on the subjects who are entitled to enjoy reduction in electricity price, electricity bill. As of May 12, 2020, EVN has reduced electricity price for 12.4 million customers with a reduction of VND1,739 billion.
Reporter: In the process of implementing the reduction in electricity price, electricity bill for customers, what difficulties does EVN face, sir?
Mr. Vo Quang Lam: First of all, it is to identify the object of the tourist accommodation establishments. According to Document No. 2698 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, customers must provide documents identifying “tourist accommodation establishments” in accordance with Tourism Law 2017 and legal documents. However, in fact, some units have not fully provided documents.
Therefore, EVN has been proactively working with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, proposing solutions and unifying plans to identify the tourist accommodation establishments. For those customers who have not fully provided documents, the power units still receive requests, synthesize the data and send it to the Department of Tourism, Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism of the relevant localities for confirmation. At the same time, EVN facilitates these customers by taking step 1: applying a 10% discount on electricity price. When customers provide sufficient documents, power units will continue to perform step 2: reducing the rate from business prices to production ones. EVN commits to ensure all benefits in the support for 3-month bills (from April 16, 2020 to July 15, 2020).
In addition, for the concentrated medical isolation facilities, concentrated medical examination and treatment facilities serving the prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemic, to accurately identify cases of 20% and 100% reduction, etc., EVN has submitted an official letter to the People’s Committees of provinces and Central cities, the Steering Committees for COVID-19 prevention and control of the provinces and Departments of Health, to request them to confirm the entitled list, every month, for EVN to reduce electricity charge in accordance with regulations.
Hanoi Power General Corporation provides free masks to people.
Reporter: How has the reduction in electricity price, electricity bill affected the results of production and business activities of EVN, sir?
Mr. Vo Quang Lam: This is the first time in Vietnam history that the reduction in price electricity is applied with a very high rate and it is also a burden on EVN’s finance. In the structure of electricity price, the purchasing cost from EVN, independent power plants (BOT, IPP), or other sources accounts for 82%. Meanwhile, the hydrological situation in 2020 is not favourable, in order to supply adequate power, EVN has to maximally mobilize the heat sources. Particularly in the first 4 months of 2020, the electricity system had to mobilize over 1 billion kWh of oil-fired power, an increase of 2.5 times over the same period of 2019.
That is not to mention, the COVID-19 pandemic made the service and industrial production sectors stall and stop production, which exerts a direct impact on electricity business and on the progress of the implementation of power and grid projects, etc.
In such difficult context, the reduction is a great effort made by EVN, especially when the Group still has to mobilize large capital to invest in building power sources and power grids.
Reporter: Thank you very much Sir!