The Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department is enforcing a decision to block the import and export of goods by the Trung Nam Group, over unpaid taxes, VN Express is reporting.
Of particular interest in this article, however, is that Trung Nam Group has claimed the delay has been caused by delayed payments from the state power provider EVN–among its many business lines, the company is one of the biggest providers of electricity to the grid. Whereas the company says that EVN usually pays up within 45 days, payments of late have been delayed by up to three months.
Vietnam’s electricity woes have been ongoing for some time now, linked to rising costs coupled with price controls that have together led to power being sold at below cost price. EVN reported an accumulated loss of US$1.5 billion over 2022 and 2023. It also has an outstanding debt of US$570 million. In this context, it appears that supplier’s may be financing at least some of EVN’s losses.