off-the-wire

Japan's TEPCO cuts price hike request to 17.6% from 29.3%

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
TOKYO, March 30 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) has revised its request to raise utility prices for households to an increase of 17.6%, down from 29.3% as a result of a cost recalculation requested by the government.


Japan's government is taking time to approve the requests from utilities such as TEPCO to ease the historically high inflation burden on consumers and utilities. TEPCO asked for an increase of 29.3% at the end of January but submitted the smaller 17.6% increase on Thursday to the ministry of economy, trade and industry, it added, as the yen has risen slightly while the prices of oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and wholesale electricity have eased.


TEPCO, which according to Nikkei was seeking 400 billion yen in loans from banks to deal with high import costs, initially wanted to raise regulated power prices for households from June 1.


It has not changed the timing of its requested price hike, a spokesperson at TEPCO Energy Partner, the group's retail unit, said on Thursday.


($1 = 132.47 yen) (Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Yuka Obayashi; editing by Jason Neely)

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