If EVN continues to lose money, the leader should resign.

Continuous power cuts will make people feel frustrated.

Talking in the hallway of the National Assembly on the afternoon of June 10, delegate Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap delegation) discussed the power shortage and rotating power outages that have occurred in recent days.

Mr. Hoa acknowledged that the power shortage has been happening for many years, almost every year, causing frustration for the people. Electricity is an extremely important issue for production and business activities as well as people's lives.

"For example, in recent days in Hanoi, during the hot weather, people have had to save electricity and cut off power, making them feel very frustrated, but also very sorry for the electricity industry," said delegate Pham Van Hoa, while also wondering why this power shortage has lasted for many years without being resolved.

Talking about the current situation of many localities having power outages, Mr. Pham Van Hoa said that if there is not enough power supply, EVN is forced to cut it off. If there is no power, cutting it off is natural, because "if there is not enough power, how can it be supplied?"

“We see that some hydroelectric plants have dead water levels and are unable to generate electricity. This is also an objective cause of the weather. If it doesn't rain, how can there be water?” said Mr. Hoa.

Focus - National Assembly member Pham Van Hoa: If losses continue, the leader should resign so that someone else can run EVN better. — National Assembly Delegate Pham Van Hoa (Photo: Hoang Bich).

The delegate also said that recently the Director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority apologized to the people for the power outage and he also proposed tasks and solutions for the upcoming power supply.

"Let's see how EVN operates the power grid for people and businesses in the future, then we will have assessments for EVN," said Mr. Hoa.

On June 9, when speaking to the press, Mr. Vu Hong Thanh - Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee said that the electricity shortage had been warned about several years ago.

Mr. Thanh said that if Vietnam's economic growth rate recovers to around 6-7%, the power shortage will occur more often than it is now.

Regarding the cause of the power shortage, the electricity industry said that the hot weather led to a spike in electricity consumption, so it had to conduct rotating power cuts to reduce the load. However, another fact pointed out is that in recent years, no major projects have been invested in and if there have been, they have been slow to be implemented.

According to the Chairman of the Economic Committee, "this matter has already been reported". Mr. Thanh said that the Economic Committee has clearly pointed out the slow-moving enterprises in power source projects invested by energy corporations, including EVN, PVN, and TKV.

The state cannot compensate EVN forever.

Talking about EVN's business results in 2022, delegate Pham Van Hoa said "if losses continue in 2023 and 2024, the responsibility of Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) is very large".

“If the losses continue, the head of the industry should have the culture to resign so that someone else can run EVN better. The State cannot compensate EVN every year. This money is the budget, the people's money, so it is natural that people are upset,” said Mr. Hoa.

According to delegate Pham Van Hoa, responsibilities need to be specified, and responsible agencies need to inspect and check.

"If the loss is due to objective reasons, it is acceptable. If the loss is not due to objective reasons, it is unacceptable," said Mr. Hoa.

Mr. Hoa said that if inspectors and auditors intervene, the cause of the loss of 26,000 billion VND that EVN just reported will be exposed.

Previously, at the socio-economic discussion session on May 25, many National Assembly deputies raised the issue that EVN lost more than VND26,000 billion in 2022, while power generation companies, including EVN's member units, still made thousands of billions in profits and had tens of thousands of billions in deposits in banks.

In a recent document sent to the Economic Committee and National Assembly delegates, EVN explained that it is necessary to consider the amount of tens of thousands of billions deposited with the short-term debt balance, about 60,045 billion VND, at the same time of member companies.

According to EVN, the above short-term debts show that the amount of debt at the units is very large. "The need to repay principal and interest during the year is very high, requiring the units to maintain a sufficient balance to pay off due debts, in order to ensure creditworthiness for future loans," the group explained.

In addition, this money will be used to pay debts to suppliers, pay for electricity purchases for rooftop solar power plants and small hydropower plants at the beginning of next month according to signed contracts.

This money is also used to invest in distribution and retail systems to meet the growing demand for load (electricity consumption) and production and business costs.

"Electricity corporations must proactively balance appropriate cash flows to ensure timely payment of principal and interest to credit institutions, payments to suppliers and power plants according to regulations, and are responsible for improving the efficiency of capital use of the unit," EVN said .

Source