Vietnam's EVN seeks government approval to up pwr tariff apr 1
HANOI - State-owned Electricity of Vietnam, or EVN, is seeking government approval to raise its average end user tariff 5.4% from April 1 to 5.9 U.S. cents a kilowatt-hour from 5.6 cents/kWh currently, an EVN official said Monday.
"EVN's proposal will be subject to a government decision soon," the official, at EVN's Planning and Investment Department, told Dow Jones Newswires.
The official said prices must rise in order to cover the cost of future development and also to pay for the fuel products that power many of Vietnam's electricity plants.
The last time EVN raised its average electricity price was Oct. 1, 2002, when it was increased by 13% to 5.6 cents/kWh.
"EVN will invest about 23 trillion dong ($1=VND15,690) this year to build new supply sources, while we really need about VND30 trillion to meet our demand for investment projects," he said.
In 2003, EVN spent VND19.5 trillion on new power projects, up more than 45% from 2002, according to EVN's Web site (www.evn.com.vn).
EVN, which has a total generation capacity of 9,000 megawatts, sold 34.885 billion kWh to end users in 2003, compared with 35.801 billion kWh in 2002.
EVN forecasts that Vietnam's electricity consumption will grow at an annual rate of 14% and 15% respectively over the next two years.
Dow Jones Newswires - February 16, 2004.
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