Government to cut costs of electricity, water, and telecommunications for citizens

August 02, 2021 | 14:52

(0) user say

To aid people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the government will reduce the price of electricity, followed by water and telecommunications fees.

Government to cut costs of electricity, water, and telecommunications for citizens

People in provinces implementing social distancing will receive a discount on their electricity bills. Photo: VNA

According to a proposal of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) submitted on July 30, people using up to 200kWh of electricity a month for living purposes in cities and provinces implementing social distancing according to Directive No.16/CT-TTg will have their electricity bills reduced by 15 per cent (before VAT).

Customers using more than 200kWh a month are entitled to a 10 per cent discount. The support will be available for bills in the two months of August and September.

The size of the support package is expected to be about VND2.5 trillion ($108.7 million).

In addition, apart from the free medical isolation facilities, electricity bills have also been waived for paid medical isolation facilities for seven months (from June to December).

After the proposal of reducing electricity costs, deputy prime minister Le Minh Khai requested related agencies to consider reducing the cost of clean water for daily life and telecommunications charges to help affected people.

This is the fourth support for electricity bills since the beginning of 2020.

According to for statistics from the MoIT, the first support implemented from April 16, 2020 to the end of July 16, 2020 helped 27 million beneficiaries with a total reduction of about VND9.3 trillion ($404.35 million).

The second support, implemented from October to December 2020, had 25.4 million beneficiaries with a total reduction of nearly VND3 trillion ($130.43 million). The third one is estimated at about VND1.3 trillion ($56.5 million).

21 cities and provinces nationwide have implemented social distancing according to Directive 16.

By Trúc Anh

What the stars mean:

★ Poor ★ ★ Promising ★★★ Good ★★★★ Very good ★★★★★ Exceptional