Session 3, National Assembly term XIII: The monopoly of the electricity business needs to be broken up

​After 7 years of implementation, inadequacies, difficulties, problems and some regulations inappropriate for managing and controlling methods of the electricity sector have been clearly seen. At the conference hall, delegates assumed that it was essential to enact Law on amendments and supplements of the Electricity Law to perfect the legal framework of electricity operation and contribute to promoting the quality and effectiveness of electricity facility and energy security.

 

* Complied with market rules and regulated by the State

 

Many delegates assumed electricity was a special commodity. Therefore electrical price should be stipulated in accordance with rules of market mechanism and regulated by the State. Such stipulation would not only assure electricity price to be under proper control and follow closely market signals, but also help keep the regulating role of the State in kinds of goods which could enormously and directly affect the economic-social development, national defense and people’s lives; also encourage and diversify sources of investment for electricity development and promote efficient use of electricity.

 

Agreeing with the idea of the electricity price establishment in accordance with the market mechanism but under the regulation of the State, delegate Nguyen Thanh Phuong (Can Tho Province) suggested reducing kinds of prices in the current electricity pricing structure and be more transparent and official in controlling electricity price.

 

Delegate Bui Thi An (Hanoi) frankly said: “There have to be solutions to break up the monopoly of the electricity sector. If the monopoly still exits, there will be no equality between sellers and buyers”. Ms. An also suggested that in the basis of pricing electricity sector should assure the facility and clarify the responsibilities of each party for the electricity consumption during transmission process.

 

On the same page, delegate Le Thi Nguyet (Vinh Phuc Province) assumed that electricity price had to meet the demands of both sellers and buyers. The State had to clearly separate electricity price of business operation and public utility. It is necessary to accelerate localization of electrical equipments in Vietnam to reduce product prices.

 

Agreeing with the need for amendments of Law on Electricity, delegate Hoang Thi To Nga (Nam Dinh) suggested a draft law on supplementing rights and obligations of electricity consumers as well as suppliers because of the fact that their late payment will lead to power cut whereas causing damage to electrical equipments is not properly compensated. There should be sanctions for suppliers who do not fulfill their responsibilities. Concerning to the topic, delegate Tran Tien Dung (Ha Tinh Province) assumed, to ensure equality between sellers and buyers, the draft law needed to specifically stipulate conditions to stop electricity supply and payment terms; especially suppliers’ responsibilities for materials if they were not able to ensure stable electricity supply which affected people’s daily lives and businesses’ production.

 

 

On discussing about electricity development planning, a lot of delegates said, in recent years, planning projects of industrial construction and development… at locals had not been mainstreamed and synchronized with the content of electricity development planning, which affected the consolidation and consecutiveness of the electricity development planning. The delegates suggested the electricity development planning in provinces and central cities should be not only reasonable but also an inseparable part of national electricity development planning; tightly stick to planning projects of fundamental energy sources, such as: oil, gas, and especially the tendency of gradually increasing thermoelectricity coal, land planning, transportation, irrigation, flood prevention, hydro-electric ladder planning on rivers…

 

Speaking about avoiding fragmentation and waste in the electricity development planning, delegate Bui Thi An (Hanoi) assumed, the State had to have a supporting budget for electricity development in particular, remote and ethnic minority areas. It was necessary to create clear hierarchy in licensing to implement power plant projects based on scales and productivity in order to avoid unplanned construction of these kinds of projects. Delegate Vo Van Ve (Thai Binh Province) suggested the Ministry of Industry and Trade make new Law on Energy and on Recycling Energy as soon as possible in order to create the legal framework amending forms of consumption and electricity exploitation by applying the model of recycling energy in developed nations. Assumed that this was a draft law which would directly affect people’s lives, business’ production process, delegate Vo Van Ve suggested the drafting unit should collect more ideas from people.