National Assembly Delegate Cam Thi Man (National Assembly Delegation of Thanh Hoa province) contributed comments on the draft Law on Electricity (amended)

On the afternoon of November 7, at the National Assembly House, continuing the 8th Session Program, under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man , the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law on Electricity (amended).

National Assembly Delegate Cam Thi Man (National Assembly Delegation of Thanh Hoa province) contributed comments on the draft Law on Electricity (amended).

Participating in giving comments, National Assembly Deputy Cam Thi Man agreed that it is necessary to comprehensively amend the Electricity Law based on the grounds stated in the Government 's Submission to fully and comprehensively institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's laws on national energy development.

To contribute to the completion of the Law project, delegate Cam Thi Man contributed her opinions on the electricity development policy stipulated in Article 5 of the draft Law. Accordingly, Article 5 of the draft Law consists of 15 clauses with principles and contents expressing specific policies of the State on electricity development. Among them, there are some contents and policies assigned to the Government based on practical situations to specify in detail. However, the policies are basically stipulated in the draft Law in the most general way to institutionalize the State's viewpoints and policies on electricity, but there are no regulations on assigning competent agencies to specify in detail these policies. This may lead to the fact that these policies are difficult to put into practice when the law comes into effect.

Therefore, to ensure consistency in understanding and applying the law; effectiveness, publicity and transparency for each policy, avoid creating a mechanism of asking for and giving, negativity and waste, especially ensuring the feasibility of the law, delegates suggested reviewing the contents of Article 5 to clearly identify which contents and groups of policies need to be assigned detailed regulations and the competent authority assigned to regulate in detail.

Regarding the prohibited acts in electricity activities and electricity use stipulated in Article 8 of the draft Law, through research, delegate Cam Thi Man said that the regulation of prohibited acts by the listing method may lead to an incomplete list of prohibited acts, not being general and comprehensive; there are contents between clauses that overlap in content and meaning; there are contents that have been stipulated in other documents or are not necessary to be stipulated in this law. Therefore, it is recommended to review the prohibited acts in the draft law to ensure comprehensiveness, generality and non-duplication.

Specifically, in Clause 2 and Clause 3 of the draft, there is an overlap in the general act of theft. Thus, these two clauses can be merged into one clause to provide general provisions on the prohibition of the act of stealing electricity and electrical equipment. At the same time, replace the verb "destruction" in Clause 3 with the words and phrases "destruction" and "intentionally damaging electrical equipment" to ensure consistency with the provisions of law on handling administrative and criminal responsibilities for these acts.

The prohibited acts stipulated in Clauses 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 have many overlapping points in content, and the use, exploitation and management of electricity, electrical works or related works all have their own specific standards and criteria, so they can be generalized.

On the other hand, the way of describing prohibited acts by listing is unscientific and not strict. Therefore, it is recommended to review and generalize the provisions in Clause 4, Clause 5, Clause 6, Clause 7 and Clause 8 to stipulate them as one clause in the following direction: "Strictly prohibiting acts that violate regulations on operation, exploitation, management, use of electricity, safety corridors for electricity works, regulations on protection of electricity works, electrical safety and safety of dams and hydroelectric reservoirs."

In Clause 12, which stipulates the prohibition of the act of "Causing harassment, annoyance, and illegal profiteering in electricity activities and electricity use", the delegate said that in this case, the act of causing harassment should be regulated by ethical norms in the internal rules and regulations of the agency or unit, which is more appropriate. Regarding the act of "illegal profiteering in electricity activities and electricity use", this provision is not clear and it is not necessary to stipulate in this law because the law has general provisions on handling responsibility for acts of illegal profiteering, both administratively and criminally. Therefore, it is proposed to remove the provision in Clause 12, Article 8 of the draft Law.

Regarding the approval of investment policies for power projects, Clause 1, Article 19 of the draft Law stipulates that the provincial People's Committee is the competent authority to approve investment policies for power grid investment projects with voltage levels of 110kV and 220kV passing through the administrative boundaries of two or more provincial administrative units in cases where the State requests land allocation or land lease according to the provisions of the Land Law. However, according to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 31 of the Investment Law, the Prime Minister approves investment policies for "Investment projects that are simultaneously under the investment policy approval authority of two or more provincial People's Committees".

Therefore, to ensure consistency with the provisions of the Investment Law, it is proposed to revise the authority to approve investment policies in Clause 1, Article 19 of the draft Law in the direction that the Prime Minister approves investment policies for power grid investment projects with voltage levels of 110kV and 220kV passing through the administrative boundaries of 2 or more provincial-level administrative units.

Clause 3, Article 19 of the draft new Law only stipulates the dossier, order and procedures for approving investment policies for hydropower projects, but does not have specific regulations on the competent authority to approve investment policies. Therefore, delegates proposed to consider adding specific regulations on the competent authority to approve investment policies for hydropower projects.

Regarding the principle of granting electricity operation licenses, it is stipulated in Article 47 of the draft Law. In which, Clause 1, Article 47 stipulates: "The fields of electricity activities that must be licensed include: electricity generation, electricity transmission, electricity distribution, electricity wholesale, and electricity retail". This provision does not include the activity of "Electricity consulting". However, the current electricity law has very specific provisions on the activity of "Electricity consulting" and the licensing of "Electricity consulting".

Therefore, delegate Cam Thi Man proposed to add the activity of "Electricity consulting" to the field that must be licensed. At the same time, it is proposed to add regulations on the conditions for granting electricity operation licenses in the field of electricity consulting because electricity projects are special technical projects that can easily cause insecurity for people and equipment if the design and supervision do not ensure technical standards; the implementation of specialized consulting on electricity projects requires sufficient capacity to design and supervise.

Quoc Huong

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/dbqh-cam-thi-man-doan-dbqh-tinh-thanh-hoa-tham-gia-gop-y-ve-du-thao-luat-dien-luc-sua-doi-229744.htm