Korea’s state-run power company collected nearly 900 billion won ($823 million) in August last year from household users, 1.5 times more than the monthly average charged for electricity use in spring and fall, data showed Wednesday.

According to the Korea Electric Power Corp, the company charged 885 billion won for household users, nearly 60 percent higher than bills levied in October worth 556 billion.

In contrast to the significant difference in monthly bills charged for household users, bills claimed to industrial users remained much about the same. The state-controlled power provider collected 2.8 trillion won in power bills from industrial users in July. The amount of power rate rather dropped to 2.6 trillion won in August.

As the electricity demand soars amid the scorching heat this year, controversy has grown over the progressive power rate system that is applied only to household users. Electricity consumption for industrial purpose is not subjected to the cumulative scheme.

The power charge for self-employed businessmen did not also show a drastic increase in August but remained around 1.3 trillion in both summer and fall.

The data added fuel to escalating speculations here that such a discriminative rate system has left household users from bearing the rising power cost alone, considering that the power demand from households and industry does not vary much by seasons.

According to a report released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, a household which pays an average of 53,000 won for electricity in spring and fall, has to pay 321,000 won in summer if the air conditioner is kept on for eight hours a day in summer.

The agency forecasted that the power charge for this summer will likely be much higher than last summer as the electricity demand has grown.

In the first half of this year, Korean households were charged 4.1 trillion won for electricity, an increase of 1.2 percent compared to last year.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)