SAV plans audit of power prices

An audit on electricity prices will be conducted next year. Photo zing.vn

The agency revealed the plan yesterday at a conference to announce the National Audit Report for the 2014 fiscal year.

Dao Van Dung, head of the SAV's General Affairs Department, said that members of the public had raised concerns about the price of electricity and the way it is calculated.

The price of electricity rose 7.5 per cent to an average of VND1,622 per kWh as of March 16, following a decision approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Since the new price was applied, a lot of questions have been raised related to the reasons behind the price hike.

Petrol stable

The report said the price of petrol throughout the country had remained stable from 2011-13. However, shortcomings were found in price adjustments and the use of the fuel price stabilisation fund in early 2011.

The report said the price of petrol had been kept below global prices for some time, which was why the fund had been overused. This meant authorised agencies had to increase the price of petrol.

It failed to fulfill its role of stabilising fuel prices which resulted in an increase in the consumer price index at that time, the report said.

The national audit report examined records from 14 ministries and central agencies, 35 major cities and provinces, and 40 State-owned enterprises and credit institutions.

The SAV reported that the State Budget collection in 2013 was over VND1,084 trillion (US$49.7 billion), with State budget spending of more than VND1,277 trillion ($58.5 billion).

The overspending made up 6.6 per cent of gross domestic production, about 1.3 per cent higher than the rate approved by the National Assembly.

The public debt in 2013 was over VND1,954 trillion ($89.5 billion), accounting for 54,5 per cent of GDP, while the public debt in 2012 made up 55.7 per cent of GDP.

Dao Van Dung, head of the SAV's General Affairs Department, said that State-owned enterprises submitted incorrect reports regarding revenues and taxable costs, which meant they paid less VAT and corporate income tax than they should have.

They had been asked to pay an extra VND3.28 trillion ($150.5 million) to the State Budget, he said.

The reported said the SAV also audited the State Bank of Viet Nam. The bank was said to have operated flexibly and efficiently used monetary policy to contribute to macro-economic objectives under the socio-economic development plan in 2013.

However, banking activities still faced challenges such as credit quality and the ratio of bad debt.