From today (16 March) Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) increased its power prices by 7.5%.

Following instructions from the Vietnamese Government, poor families in rural and remote areas nationwide will continue to receive a 30,000 VND subsidy for the first 50KWh they use each month.  Therefore, the rise in power prices will not affect their daily lives too much.

However, the electricity price hike will significantly affect local businesses, especially seafood processors, steel and cement manufacturers because electricity accounts for a high proportion of these company’s production costs.

A worker at the Hoa Khanh Textile and Garment Company

In reality, many local business leaders doubt whether the increase in electricity prices will in fact go in hand with the promised quality improvements to electricity supplies, especially voltage stability, a reduction in the number of unexpected power outages, and compensation for these incidents.