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Distraught over electricity prices, businesses demanding change
Over 100 businesses in Hanoi have asked for an adjustment of the peak-hour electricity pricing scheme, which they say has created big difficulties for production.
The Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade said that it had received a lot of complaints from local businesses in the last month about problems with the new electricity pricing scheme.
The Sai Son Cement Company said that the electricity price and the new method of calculating electricity in peak hours have put a lot of difficulties on the company. It has asked to have the daily number of peak hours lowered by one hour, suggesting that more peak hours be added to Saturdays and Sundays.
DHA, an import-export company, said that having only one production shift per day, the company has three peak hours per day, which means that the company has to pay 40% more for its electricity bill. Previously, the company paid VND100mil a month for electricity use, and now it pays VND140mil.
A representative of DHA said that the company is now using 2,000 female labourers so it cannot organise night production shifts.
Meanwhile, the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam has sent a report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade since touring 10 enterprises in Tien Giang, Long An provinces and Hanoi affirming that impacts of the new electricity pricing scheme on enterprises are inconsiderable.
The authority suggests that enterprises save electricity by rearranging production shifts, creating shifts on Sundays or during non-peak hours.
However, while talking to VietNamNet, Pham Trung Son, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, said he does not agree with the conclusion by the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam, adding that local businesses all have complained about the new pricing scheme, especially the morning peak-hour scheme.
Son said that if enterprises have to stop production for two hours in the morning to avoid the peak-hour time, this will lead to sharp productivity falls. He also said that it is unfeasible to organise production shifts on Sundays and Saturdays.
Moreover, it would be more costly to organise a third production shift, at night.
Though businesses have to pay less for electricity at night, they would not be able to get optimum labour productivity. Meanwhile, businesses would have to pay labourers more to force them to work at night.
According to Son, the rate of businesses in Hanoi that have one production shift is relatively high, 60%. Businesses which have been facing big difficulties due to the global economic recession and narrowed export markets have to reorganise production in order to reduce production costs and survive difficulties; meanwhile, the new electricity scheme has made production costs increase.
In Hanoi, mechanical, garment & textile and footwear companies prove to be suffering the most from the new electricity pricing scheme. Son cited several names like Xuan Hoa, Viet Tiep mechanical, Thuong Dinh and Thuy Khue shoes, and May 19 Textile.
Son said that it is necessary to remove the morning peak-hour scheme, while peak hours should be set in the evening. This scheme was applied before and proved to be reasonable.
Son said that his department has sent a document to Hanoi People’s Committee, reporting the difficulties that local businesses are facing with the electricity pricing scheme, asking the prime minister and Ministry of Industry and Trade to adjust the scheme in order to help enterprises overcome the current difficulties.
Pham Huyen
vietnamnet
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