The Standing Committee of the Science, Technology and Environment Committee said that the process of restructuring the electricity industry to serve the competitive electricity market is very slow compared to the prescribed progress.
Continuing the 36th Session, on the afternoon of August 19, at the National Assembly House, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Electricity (amended).
Ensuring national energy security
Regarding the necessity of promulgating the Electricity Law (amended), according to the Summary Report of the Law Project, after the 2004 Electricity Law took effect, many new policies and guidelines of the Party and State related to Vietnam's national energy development (including the electricity sector) were promulgated.
At the same time, after nearly 20 years of implementation and through 4 amendments and supplements to a number of articles, at present there are still a number of issues that the provisions of the current Electricity Law have not met, and it is necessary to amend and supplement them to meet the goal of implementing the Party's policies on the energy sector in general and electricity in particular, especially the goal of ensuring national energy security.
The development of the Law project contributes to institutionalizing the Party and State's guidelines and policies, and the National Assembly's resolutions on developing a socialist-oriented market economy, associated with growth model innovation, improving the business environment, enhancing national competitiveness to build and develop the electricity sector in accordance with the country's socio-economic development conditions; ensuring the State's unified management of electricity activities, promoting decentralization and delegation of power, clearly defining the State's management and regulation functions on electricity and the management functions of electricity production and business of enterprises.
Presenting the Summary Report on the Preliminary Examination of the Electricity Law Project (amended), Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy affirmed that the Standing Committee of the Committee basically agreed with the necessity of promulgating the Electricity Law (amended) as proposed by the Government in Submission No. 380/TTr-CP.
Regarding the constitutionality, legality, consistency of the draft Law with the legal system and compatibility with international treaties, the Standing Committee of the Science, Technology and Environment Committee found that the contents of the draft Law are basically consistent with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution; compatible with relevant international treaties to which Vietnam is a member.
However, there are opinions that Clause 1, Article 6 of the draft Law on international cooperation and international economic integration in electricity activities is not sufficient and not consistent with the provisions of Article 12 of the 2013 Constitution. In addition, there are opinions suggesting considering the provisions of Clause 3, Article 68 to ensure compliance with the Constitution and consistency with the legal system.
The Standing Committee of the Science, Technology and Environment Committee requested that the drafting agency continue to review and compare the provisions of the draft Law with relevant laws to ensure consistency and uniformity of the legal system, and compliance with the provisions of international treaties to which Vietnam is a member.
Regarding the feasibility of the draft Law, the Standing Committee of the Science, Technology and Environment Committee proposed to continue reviewing and selectively refer to international experiences suitable to Vietnam's reality to ensure the feasibility of a number of regulations such as the independence in the operations of subjects participating in the competitive electricity market, protecting the rights of electricity users, parties participating in electricity trading, investment models for new energy, renewable energy, etc.
The drafting agency needs to continue to research, review, amend and supplement regulations in the direction of specifying some regulations, avoiding general regulations that are difficult to quantify, and research to include specific regulations in guiding decrees and sub-law documents that have been tested in practice in the draft Law.
Regarding electricity trading activities towards promoting a transparent, fair, effective competitive electricity market and electricity prices according to market mechanisms, specifically the issue of a competitive electricity market (regulated from Article 51 to Article 61), the Standing Committee of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment said that the process of restructuring the electricity industry to serve a competitive electricity market is very slow compared to the prescribed progress.
Therefore, the Standing Committee of the Science, Technology and Environment Committee recommends that the drafting agency clarify and supplement the principled provisions related to the roadmap for electricity market development; the electricity sector restructuring plan; the retail electricity price reform plan and comply with the direction in Resolution 55-NQ/TW of the Politburo on the orientation of Vietnam's national energy development strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045.
Specify regulations on development of new energy and renewable energy
Discussing at the meeting, Chairman of the Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh commented on the number and content of detailed provisions of the provisions in the draft Law. Accordingly, out of 121 Articles, there are 25 contents assigned to the Government and the Prime Minister for detailed regulations and 15 contents assigned to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Minister of Industry and Trade for guidance.
The Chairman of the Economic Committee requested the drafting agency to review and study additional provisions in the draft Law, reducing the contents assigned to the Government for detailed regulations or the Ministry of Industry and Trade for guidance.
In addition, according to Mr. Vu Hong Thanh, developing new energy and renewable energy is an extremely important content, however, reviewing the provisions, the regulations on creating mechanisms and attractiveness for this issue are still presented generally. Regarding the regulations on the independence in the operations of subjects in the competitive electricity market and protecting the rights of participants, the Chairman of the Economic Committee said that compensation for damages according to the market mechanism for participants when incidents occur needs to be clarified.
Contributing opinions to the draft Law, Chairman of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh said that Article 21 of the Law on Prices stipulates the Prime Minister's authority to set prices for goods and services of special importance that affect the macro-economy and people's lives. According to Mr. Le Quang Manh, electricity prices are a commodity that meets the above requirements, therefore they are a type of goods and services of special importance and will fall under the Prime Minister's authority to set prices.
Meanwhile, Article 76 of the current draft Law is designed in the direction that the Prime Minister only regulates the structure of retail and wholesale prices, which is not consistent with the Law on Prices. Therefore, the Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee proposed to redesign it to be consistent with the provisions on the Prime Minister's authority, which is that the Prime Minister decides on the wholesale and retail price framework. In particular, it is necessary to note the role and responsibility of the Ministry of Finance in State management of prices.
In addition, Articles 51 to 78 of the draft Law have defined the principles of electricity pricing. Emphasizing that this is an important content of the draft Law, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man noted that it is necessary to develop a consistent pricing principle that electricity prices must ensure compensation for all actual production and business costs, be reasonable, valid and profitable for electricity units, as well as be consistent with the market level in the process of electricity production and business.
Also at the meeting, in the afternoon of the same day, the National Assembly Standing Committee reviewed the National Assembly's report on people's petition work in July 2024./.
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