Besides Hanoi, which other localities combine electricity bills in February?

Which localities combine electricity bills?

In recent days, on social networking forums, people and customers using services of Hanoi Electricity Corporation (EVN Hanoi) have posted articles, along with images of meter readings, reflecting the sudden increase in electricity bills in February. More notably, this is the month when many households in the capital "closed their doors" for many days to return to their hometowns for the 2024 Lunar New Year holiday.

According to Lao Dong's research, the plan to change the electricity meter closing date to the end of the month in 21 districts of the city was announced by EVN Hanoi in early October 2023 and officially applied on November 30, 2023.

However, EVN Hanoi said that it could not be implemented at that time because the retail electricity price for household use increased during the month, and increasing the time of electricity use during the month would affect people's daily lives.

Therefore, in February 2024, this unit will make synchronous changes at 30 electricity companies in the area. According to the electricity agency, changing the time period for closing electricity meter numbers will help management agencies easily monitor and unify data for reporting, limiting related errors.

Many families have electricity bills that are twice as high as previous months. Photo: Phung Nguyen

According to Lao Dong's research, the change in meter reading and bill consolidation in the February electricity payment period (after Tet) is only implemented in Hanoi. Before Hanoi, some localities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Quang Binh, Thai Nguyen have applied it since September 2023.

There are also places that have encountered conflicting opinions on changing meter readings and combining payment bills, similar to the case in Hanoi.

Specifically, in Ho Chi Minh City, after the National Day holiday on September 2, people's electricity bills increased dramatically because the city's electricity industry combined bills. A representative of Ho Chi Minh City Electricity Corporation at that time also explained that the old electricity recording schedule was the 10th of every month, but the electricity company switched to recording electricity at the end of the month from August 2023.

Therefore, instead of the number of days of electricity recording being 31 days if recorded from 11.7 to 10.8, it now changes to 52 days because the electricity recording date extends to 31.8.

With a 31-day electricity bill recording period, the standard for level 1 is 50kWh, and with an increased recording period of 52 days, the standard for level 1 will be 84kWh due to the increased number of recording days, the unit price remains unchanged. For the remaining steps, the standard will also increase accordingly.

Hanoi Electricity explains but customers are not satisfied

In response to concerns that people's electricity bills will increase when the meter reading date is moved to the end of the month, Ms. To Lan Phuong - Head of Business Department of Hanoi Electricity Corporation explained that the level of electricity usage for each step will be adjusted according to the actual number of days of electricity use in the reading period. Therefore, the actual electricity bill people pay will not change.

EVN Hanoi closed the meter reading on February 29, causing people's electricity usage time to increase by 11 - 28 days. Because the actual number of days of this billing period increased, extending to 57 days, EVN Hanoi also increased the number of kWh to enjoy the electricity price of level 1, level 2 will be expanded from 50kWh (according to regulations) to 92kWh; level 3, level 4 will be expanded from 100 numbers to 184 numbers.

The maximum numbers of 92kWh and 184kWh that we give are not fixed. Depending on the number of additional days of electricity consumption of each household, there will be a specific and appropriate calculation method. If the number of additional days of electricity consumption is less, it means that the output calculated on the ladder price will decrease accordingly (less than 92kWh for levels 1, 2 and less than 184kWh for levels 3, 4).

"We have built a toolkit to calculate the electricity consumption at each level. People can check their household's electricity consumption through the application or website of the electricity industry. The rights of electricity customers are guaranteed," said the Head of EVN Hanoi Business Department.

Although EVN Hanoi has spoken out, customers still feel unsatisfied. Mr. Huy (Thanh Tri) said, if the electricity industry calculates the bill monthly, why not separate the amount for easier understanding. For example, the electricity bill for January is X VND (with a table calculating the electricity consumption index and cumulative by level), the bill for February is Y VND, the total for 2 months is X + Y. That way, there is no need to bother with increasing the index to calculate the level from 50 to 90, making it complicated.

“Even if the lump sum calculation does not cause any harm to customers, it is clear that the electricity industry is making the issue confusing, difficult to understand, and causing bad public opinion. Not to mention, if we separate the two months, the pressure to pay the electricity bill will decrease. For example, my family, paying 2.5 million VND per month will be less pressured than paying 5 million VND for 2 months at a time. In the current context of inflation, this clearly causes frustration for customers,” Mr. Huy analyzed.

Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Tri Long - former Director of the Institute of Price Research (Ministry of Finance) said that normally, the more customers buy, the more discounts they get, but only in the electricity industry, the more customers use, the higher the price they pay. Since the price is calculated in steps, it is inevitable that merging 2 months to calculate the bill at once will cause anxiety or misunderstanding.

He said that the change in meter reading is also part of the general direction from the State management to businesses and people. The unification of meter reading dates will ensure the rights of electricity customers, as well as ease the management, operation and settlement of payments by electricity sellers and electricity users.

However, he noted that electricity bills are calculated on a cumulative basis, meaning that if you use more, you will have to pay at a higher price. Therefore, the meter reading closing date needs to be monitored by the management agency to avoid additional costs, causing unnecessary losses to consumers.

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