The Government assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and relevant agencies to implement the policy.

The Covid-19 outbreak is still severe in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and many southern provinces and cities, affecting the country's socio-economic development. The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes reducing electricity bills for customers who meet the following conditions:

Factories or production facilities located in provinces and centrally-run cities implementing social distancing in accordance with Directive No. 16 on August 25, which are maintaining production in the following fields: processing and preserving aquatic products, fruit and vegetables, or producing export goods with an export turnover of over $1 billion in 2020.

They must buy electricity directly from the Electricity of Vietnam Corporation (EVN) or a power company under EVN or other electricity retailers.

These customers will enjoy a reduction of 10% of the electricity bill (pre-VAT) from September through November 2021.

This is the fifth time that electricity users are benefiting from reduction of power charges and power bill. According to EVN, the total amount of support this time is about VND650 billion (excluding VAT).

The list of factories and production facilities eligible for electricity bill reduction is being certified and provided by the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities on the basis of business registration and actual production of the enterprises.

On June 2, the Government issued resolution No 55/NQ-CP to reduce electricity prices from June to the end of this year to support those heavily affected by the prolonged pandemic, including tourist accommodation facilities. The reduction was estimated to be worth a total of VND1.57 trillion.

Early this month, the Government also approved the reduction of power prices for August and September for households in provinces and cities applying social distancing. The EVN estimated that the total reduction for customers would be worth VND2.5 trillion ($106.4 million).

There were two similar discounts offered last year. The first ran from April 16 to July 17, 2020 and supported more than 27 million customers with the total reduction reaching around VND9.3 trillion.

The second was from October to December 2020 with more than 25.4 million customers enjoying reductions worth VND3 trillion.

T. Nam

Millions of customers in 21 southern provinces and cities benefit from power bill discounts

The Southern Power Corporation will slash VND1,170 billion of power charges for customers affected by the Covid-19 epidemic in 21 southern provinces in 2021.