VINACHEM

Vinacomin officials said that the price of coal for electricity generation should be adjusted in 2012 to reduce the financial burden on the group.

However, the MoIT’s heavy industry department believed that any adjustment of coal and electricity prices should be appropriate with the economy and the MoIT would ask the Prime Minister for the right time to do so.

Vinacomin Vice Director General, Nguyen Quang Bien, insisted that current coal prices are equal to 50 percent of the production cost and if the rising level of prices stands at only 30 percent annually, it would take another three years to equalize prices and costs for 2011.

Bien also cited high taxes, including environmental and natural resources taxes, as mounting pressure on their intention to raise coal prices.

According to Bien, the group produced an estimated 39.6 million tonnes of coal in the past 10 months, a 3 percent increase year on year.