According to audited financial statements, EVN recorded consolidated after-tax profit of VND51.881 trillion in 2025, eliminating all accumulated losses on its consolidated financial statements.

EVN parent company reported VND39.762 trillion in after-tax profit in 2025. However, by year-end, the parent company still carried accumulated losses of VND5.611 trillion.

VietNamNet spoke with Nguyen Tien Thoa, chair of the Vietnam Valuation Association and former director of the Price Management Department (Ministry of Finance), about EVN's business performance and the potential of electricity price adjustment.

The losses incurred by EVN during the 2022–2023 period once attracted heavy public attention. In your opinion, how should the core nature of these losses be viewed?

Audited results of EVN’s production and business operations in recent years show that the recorded losses were substantial. EVN lost nearly VND 20,747 billion in 2022 and VND 26,772 billion in 2023.

Technically, these are classified as losses. However, looking at the root causes, assuming that this was merely the result of weak production and business operations by the enterprise is inaccurate.

If viewed by its true nature, this can be seen as the consequence of a cash flow deficit because certain input costs had not been fully reflected in retail electricity prices. Multiple incurred expenses had to be shelved and deferred from electricity pricing.

This occurred in 2022–2023 when the State regulated retail electricity prices at a level lower than the fully calculated costs. This aimed to serve macroeconomic stability goals, control inflation, and ensure social welfare.

In 2022, the cost of electricity production and business surged by 9.2 percent, yet the average retail electricity price remained unchanged.

In 2023, the production cost of electricity was VND178/kWh higher than the average retail selling price. After two price adjustments (a 3 percent hike on May 4 and a 4.5 percent hike on November 11), the total increase only amounted to VND142.35/kWh.

After years of financial distress, EVN suddenly reported a consolidated profit of nearly VND 52,000 billion in 2025. How do you evaluate this business result and what does it reflect about the corporation's financial standing?

In 2025, electricity production and business operations enjoyed much more favorable conditions compared to previous years. This positive turnaround resulted from changes in the power generation structure, increasing the proportion of low-cost power sources and reducing the mobilization of high-cost ones.

Regarding the electricity generation sources, the proportion of hydropower, a low-cost source, rose from 29.79 percent in 2024 to 34.31 percent in 2025. Conversely, the share of higher-cost power sources declined, with coal-fired power dropping by 4.22 percent and natural gas generation decreasing by 1.12 percent.

Alongside that, the prices of numerous input fuels for power generation all decreased, as imported coal dropped by 15.6 percent to 21.9 percent; Brent crude oil decreased by 14.4 percent; HFSO oil dropped by 10.7 percent; DO oil fell by 5.8 percent; and domestic coal registered a substantial price decrease.

Additionally, retail electricity prices were adjusted upward by 4.8 percent on May 10, 2025, which, combined with a 10 percent reduction in regular operating expenses and increased revenues from power-related business activities, significantly improved the bottom line.

These factors helped the power sector turn a profit in 2025. However, one must clearly distinguish between the consolidated financial statements and the standalone financial statements of the parent company EVN.

Following EVN's announcement of positive business results and the total clearance of accumulated consolidated losses, some opinions suggest that electricity prices should be reviewed for a corresponding reduction. What is your perspective on this view?

It must be emphasized that this amount represents the exact “shelved” expenses that were not fully allocated into retail electricity prices in previous years. If these entire expenses were to be factored into current tariffs, the existing retail electricity price would still remain lower than the fully calculated production costs.

In other words, current electricity tariffs still fail to ensure the principle of fully recovering reasonable production costs and generating an appropriate profit margin under a market mechanism. This directly hurts the corporation's capacity to accumulate resources for reinvestment, power source expansion, and grid development.

Therefore, in my view, the current period has not yet converged enough necessary conditions to consider lowering retail electricity tariffs as some opinions have proposed.

Tran Chung