Vietnam’s average retail electricity price fell 2% on November 1, 2026 — the first cut to that average in years — but the only rate table either regulator published alongside the cut covers households. A commercial or industrial electricity account, the kind a shopping mall, office tower or factory floor pays, got no equivalent number in the same announcement.

What Actually Changed on November 1?

Vietnam Electricity (EVN), the state utility that generates and distributes most of the country’s power, lowered the average retail electricity price by 2%, from VNĐ2,204.0655 to VNĐ2,159.9037 per kilowatt-hour excluding value-added tax, under EVN’s Decision No. 1305/QĐ-EVN dated October 30, 2026, according to Tuổi Trẻ News. The following day, the Ministry of Industry and Trade — the agency that must approve and formalize any retail tariff change — issued Decision No. 2892/QĐ-BCT, setting the specific tariffs for different customer groups and for electricity retailers, effective the same November 1 date, Việt Nam News reported. EVN described the move as “aimed at supporting macroeconomic stability and easing costs for consumers and businesses,” and Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Văn Thắng told the National Assembly on November 1 that the government had instructed EVN to hold the retail price roughly 2% lower through March 2027.

A Full Rate Table for Households, a Single Line for Everyone Else

The household side of Decision 2892 is detailed and public: the six-tier residential tariff became five tiers, running from VNĐ1,901 per kWh for the first 100 kWh a month up to VNĐ3,844 per kWh above 700 kWh, Việt Nam News reported. A household using 200 kWh a month pays about VNĐ419,000 before tax, down VNĐ20,700; a household using 1,000 kWh actually pays about VNĐ37,300 more, because the new top tier is steeper than the old one.

No equivalent breakdown for production, business or administrative customers appeared in the coverage of either decision. Both articles note only that the 2% average serves as the basis for setting tariffs across residential, industrial and commercial classes — without stating what those classes’ new per-kWh rates actually are. For an account that pays a commercial or industrial rate, the headline cut is, so far, a percentage with no table attached to it.

The Peak-Hour Price This Cut Doesn’t Mention

That gap matters because a commercial or industrial account in Vietnam is not billed anything close to the average figure in the headline. Under the tariff structure that preceded this cut — Decision 1279/QĐ-BCT, issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in May 2025 and summarized by law firm DFDL — business customers below 6 kilovolts paid as much as VNĐ5,422 per kWh during peak hours against as little as VNĐ1,146 per kWh off-peak, a roughly five-to-one spread driven entirely by time of use. Industrial customers faced a narrower but still wide band, from about VNĐ3,266 to VNĐ3,640 per kWh at peak, according to Vietnamese media reporting from May 2026. Those peak and off-peak windows were themselves redrawn under a separate Ministry decision, No. 963/QĐ-BCT, effective April 22, 2026, which fixed the weekday peak period at 17:30 to 22:30, Monday through Saturday, with no peak pricing at all on Sundays.

A 2% reduction applied to an average of roughly VNĐ2,160 per kWh is a different animal from a 2% reduction applied — if it is applied at all in the same proportion — to a peak rate of VNĐ5,422. Nothing published so far says the commercial and industrial tables moved by the same 2%, by a different percentage, or by voltage class rather than uniformly.

What a Commercial Electricity Account Should Check Before Assuming Relief

A building owner, mall operator or factory manager in Vietnam reading headlines about a national price cut should not assume their own bill moved by 2% in either direction until they see their account class’s line in Decision 2892/QĐ-BCT or in EVN’s published retail price list, rather than in a news summary built around the household table alone. The decision exists and is dated; what hasn’t surfaced in reporting yet is the number that would let a commercial ratepayer check their November invoice against a rule rather than against an average.

Key takeaways

  • Vietnam cut its average retail electricity price by 2%, to VNĐ2,159.9037 per kWh excluding VAT, effective November 1, 2026, under EVN Decision 1305/QĐ-EVN and Ministry of Industry and Trade Decision 2892/QĐ-BCT.
  • Published reporting on the cut details only the new five-tier household tariff, from VNĐ1,901 to VNĐ3,844 per kWh; no commercial, industrial or administrative rate table has been reported alongside it.
  • Pre-cut commercial tariffs varied roughly five-to-one between peak and off-peak hours — as high as VNĐ5,422 per kWh at peak for small businesses under the prior Ministry schedule — so a flat 2% applied to the national average says little about any single commercial meter’s bill.
  • The weekday peak-pricing window businesses pay against runs 17:30 to 22:30, Monday through Saturday, under a separate Ministry decision dated April 2026, and is untouched by the November 1 announcement.
  • A commercial or industrial electricity account in Vietnam should confirm its own tariff class’s revised rate in the published decision rather than assume the 2% national figure applies directly to its bill.