<Anchor> The
government has postponed the decision to increase electricity rates scheduled for today (20th).
The decision seems to have been made with the rising inflation in mind.
First news, reporter Kim Beom-joo.
<Reporter>
On the way to work this morning, President Yoon Seok-yeol was asked about the current economic situation and answered:
[President Yoon Seok-yeol: Because the people are out of breath, I think that we will respond bipartisally to policies that require revision of the law.]
Immediately after this remark, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that the third quarter electricity rate decision, which was scheduled for today, was postponed. I did.
Originally, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy was to notify KEPCO of whether and how wide the electricity rate will be raised today.
Electricity rates are adjusted every quarter by the Ministry of Industry, in consultation with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
KEPCO is in the position that it should raise 33 won per kilowatt-hour in order to prevent the deficit from increasing further.
This means that the current rate of 130 won per kilowatt-hour based on household electricity needs to be raised by 25% or more.
However, according to current regulations, the maximum increase is 3 won per kilowatt-hour and 5 won per year from the previous quarter, so the government has requested to raise 3 won per tenth.
KEPCO recorded a record loss of 7.7 trillion won in the first quarter alone, and if the current situation goes on, it could lose up to 30 trillion won this year.
Deputy Prime Minister Choo Kyung-ho, however, announced at an emergency economy ministers meeting yesterday that he would minimize the increase through self-rescue efforts and so forth, indicating that he would suppress the rate increase for the time being.
The government plans to make a final decision on whether to raise the price within this week after examining how much KEPCO can absorb through its own efforts among the factors that increase electricity rates.