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As oil and coal prices rise worldwide, electricity production rates are also rising, but the price burden is so great that the government has decided to freeze electricity rates until June.

However, there are many controversies in that it will someday be a burden that the people will have to bear.



Reporter Kim Bo-mi covered the story.



<Reporter> The



government has effectively frozen the electricity rates to be applied from next month.



KEPCO calculated that as international crude oil and coal prices rose, it had to increase by 33 won per kilowatt hour.



However, in the course of discussion with the Ministry of Industry, the first gateway, it was reduced to 3 won per tenth, and in the final consultation with the Ministry of Finance, it was reduced altogether.



The government said that the decision was made due to the prolonged Corona situation and the high price burden.



It is presumed that President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol's pledge to freeze electricity rates in April also had an impact.



However, as announced last year, 6.9 won per kilowatt-hour will be reflected from next month as a contribution for climate and environmental issues.



Based on the standard of a four-person household using an average of 350 kWh per month, the burden of electricity bills is expected to increase by 2,300 won per month.



The problem is the deficit of KEPCO, a public corporation.



Since KEPCO has accumulated 145 trillion won in debt so far, it is paying off 5 billion won in interest a day.



With this freeze, if you sell 100 won of electricity, you will lose almost half of it, and it is expected that the debt will increase by over 20 trillion won this year.



[Seung-Hoon Yoo / Professor, Department of Future Energy Convergence, Seoul National University of Science and Technology: Annual sales of KEPCO are about 60 trillion won.

If the deficit is 20 trillion won or 30 trillion won, it means that the company cannot exist in the market.

Because it is a public company, the public has to pay off KEPCO's debt after all...

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This is why there is an opinion that the electricity price should be set by an independent committee without political consideration.