Electricity and Gas Rates to Be Decided Today... Electricity Fee Likely to Increase by 7~8 Won per kWh

The government and the ruling party will decide on the electricity and gas rate increases for the second quarter of this year (April to June) through a party-government council meeting on the morning of the 15th.

At the meeting, the party and government plan to finalize whether to raise electricity and gas rates after reviewing the appropriateness of the self-rescue plans proposed by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and Korea Gas Corporation.

The increase in electricity and gas rates for the second quarter of this year is imminent. Although the announcement of the electricity rate hike scheduled for the 11th has been postponed for now, there is a consensus both inside and outside the government on the inevitability of the rate increase, so it is expected that the final decision will not take too long. The photo shows a gas meter in a residential area in Seoul on the 11th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

For electricity rates, an increase of 8 KRW per kWh (kilowatt-hour) is strongly considered likely. Gas rates are also expected to see a slight increase, not exceeding last year's raise of 5.47 KRW per MJ (megajoule).

Earlier, KEPCO and Korea Gas Corporation announced self-rescue plans amounting to 25.7 trillion KRW and 15.4 trillion KRW respectively, including the return of salary increases for executives and employees, ahead of this rate increase decision.

Jung Seung-il, CEO of KEPCO, expressed his intention to resign last week along with the announcement of the self-rescue plan. This reflects the energy public enterprises' intention to share the public's burden caused by electricity and gas rate hikes through strong self-rescue measures.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy informed the National Assembly that electricity rates should be raised by 51.6 KRW per kWh this year. KEPCO raised electricity rates by 13.1 KRW per kWh in the first quarter of this year.

Gas rates were also advised to increase by 10.4 KRW per MJ last year. For gas rates, after the increase in October last year, the first quarter rate hike was frozen.

Attending the meeting from the party side are Park Dae-chul, Chairman of the Policy Committee; Lee Man-hee, Senior Deputy Chairman of the Policy Committee; Song Seok-jun, Vice Chairman of the Policy Committee; Han Mu-gyeong, ruling party secretary of the National Assembly Industry, Trade, and Energy Venture Businesses Committee; Ryu Seong-geol, ruling party secretary of the National Assembly Planning and Finance Committee; and Jeon Ju-hye, floor spokesperson. From the government side, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang, Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Kang Kyung-sung, and First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance Bang Ki-seon will attend.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.