Vietnam telecoms, tech firms urge rethink of higher power tariffs for data centers

Vietnam’s major telecommunications and technology groups have urged the Ministry of Industry and Trade to reconsider a recent policy change that applies commercial electricity tariffs to data centers, warning it could undermine investment in the country’s digital infrastructure.

In a joint petition, Viettel, VNPT, FPT Telecom, CMC and VNG Data Center said a new power pricing regime has sharply raised operating costs for data centers since early December.

Under Circular 60/2025/TT-BCT, which took effect on December 2, 2025, regulators reclassified data centers as “facilities providing centralized data processing, storage and management services”. The change subjects them to commercial electricity prices instead of production tariffs that had been applied for years.

The companies said electricity typically represents the single largest cost component for data centers, and the reclassification has triggered a sudden and material rise in expenses.

They warned the higher tariffs are disrupting financial planning, forcing service price adjustments and threatening the feasibility of long-term investment and expansion plans. If applied broadly, the firms said, the issue would become a systemic policy problem affecting Vietnam’s entire data center industry and digital backbone.

Rising operating costs could also weaken Vietnam’s appeal as a destination for digital infrastructure investment and jeopardize national objectives for developing cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data-driven services, they added.

In their submission, the companies argued that data centers should not be treated as ordinary commercial service providers but as “digital infrastructure factories”. They said data centers operate as specialized technical and industrial facilities with large, stable base loads and 24/7 operations, where electricity is a direct and irreplaceable input used to “produce” computing power, data storage, connectivity and secure operating environments.

They also highlighted the strategic role of data centers in supporting digital government, banking and finance, manufacturing, logistics, e-commerce, healthcare, education, and especially artificial intelligence, noting that all AI research, training, and deployment depends on the continuous and stable operation of such facilities.

The petition cited Politburo Resolution 57-NQ/TW dated December 22, 2024, which calls for policies to support investment in data centers and cloud computing, develop internationally standardized computing and storage infrastructure, and recognize data as a key factor of production. Applying commercial electricity prices that lift operating costs by more than 50% runs counter to that policy direction, the companies said.

They also pointed to the legal framework, noting that Vietnam’s 2023 Telecommunications Law classifies data center services as telecommunications services subject to licensing, while land used for data centers is designated as telecommunications and information technology infrastructure land, not commercial service land.

Based on these arguments, the firms urged the ministry to maintain the application of production electricity tariffs for data centers.

Vietnam currently has 41 commercial data centers with a combined designed capacity of 221 MW, and several large-scale projects have been announced over the past year.