EVN proposes calculating the loss in average electricity price
According to the third draft of the Decree amending and supplementing Decree 72/2025 on the mechanism and time for adjusting average retail electricity prices, although electricity prices in 2023 are adjusted, they are at a moderate level, so the adjusted electricity price is still much lower than the electricity price that needs to be adjusted, leading to not fully recovering arising costs.
According to the report of Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), the accumulated loss in 2022-2023 is about 50,029 billion VND. By the end of 2024, because EVN made a profit, the accumulated loss of the parent company - EVN was about 44,792 billion VND.
In order to have a basis for compensating for costs directly serving the production and supply of electricity that have not been fully calculated and fully accounted for in the average retail price of electricity from 2022 and 2023, EVN proposed to amend and supplement Decree No. 72/2025/ND-CP to allow the recovery of costs directly serving the production and supply of electricity that have not been fully calculated and fully compensated in the previous average retail price of electricity based on the results of announcing electricity production and business costs or annual audited financial reports.
How will electricity prices fluctuate at the end of 2025?
On that basis, the Ministry of Industry and Trade officially proposed adding a regulation allowing EVN to calculate other previously fully accounted costs into the average retail electricity price.
The basic content of amending and supplementing Decree 72/2025/ND-CP above is to clarify some other cost items included in calculating average retail electricity prices, the remaining contents of the retail price management mechanism remain basically the same as the current one.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with weather conditions and hydrological conditions in the first 7 months of 2025, many advantages have been found, contributing to EVN's production and business results being more positive than planned.
Therefore, with the addition of regulations on other costs related to causing EVN to suffer losses in 2022-2023 in the Draft Decree and if issued promptly, the management of electricity prices in the last months of 2025 is expected to not affect the current average retail electricity price after being calculated and updated on the allocation of the above other costs in the coming time or the impact is small. The adjustment level can be between 2% and less than 5%, under the authority of EVN decided after the Ministry of Industry and Trade has commented.
According to EVN's report, if the average retail electricity price is adjusted to increase by 3% in October 2025, it will increase the CPI in 2025 by about 0.03 percentage points (according to documents provided by EVN in the document dated August 14, 2025 of the Department of Statistics - Ministry of Finance).
Speaking with Lao Dong, Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Tri Long - former Director of the Institute for Price Market Research (Ministry of Finance) - said that according to the report, if electricity prices increase by 3% in October 2025, the CPI will only increase by about 0.03 percentage points. Although this figure is small, in the context of the target of controlling inflation below 4.5%, all decisions need to be cautious.
"This is the "input" of the entire economy. A small change in electricity prices can spread to production costs, commodity prices, people's lives and national competitiveness. Therefore, handling costs that have not been accounted for in electricity prices cannot be separated from the macro stabilization strategy, controlling inflation and ensuring social security" - Associate Professor. Dr. Ngo Tri Long emphasized.
