On the afternoon of November 7th, at the National Assembly building, continuing the program of the 8th Session, under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man , the National Assembly discussed in the plenary hall the draft Law on Electricity (amended).
National Assembly Deputy Cam Thi Man ( from the Thanh Hoa Provincial National Assembly Delegation) participated in providing feedback on the draft Law on Electricity (amended).
Participating in the discussion, National Assembly Deputy Cam Thi Man agreed that it is necessary to comprehensively amend the Electricity Law based on the grounds outlined in the Government 's submission, in order to fully and comprehensively institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies, and the State's laws on national energy development.
To contribute to the refinement of the draft Law, Representative 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 both principled content and specific policies of the State on electricity development. Some of these policies are delegated to the Government to regulate in detail based on practical circumstances. However, while the policies in the draft Law are generally outlined to institutionalize the State's views and policies on electricity, they lack provisions assigning the authority to regulate these policies in detail. This could lead to difficulties in implementing these policies once the law comes into effect.
Therefore, to ensure consistency in the understanding and application of the law; effectiveness, openness, and transparency for each policy; to avoid creating a system of favoritism, corruption, and waste; and especially to ensure the feasibility of the law, the representative suggested reviewing the contents of Article 5 to clearly identify which contents and policy groups require detailed regulations and which competent authority is authorized to provide them.
Regarding the prohibited acts in electricity activities and electricity use stipulated in Article 8 of the draft Law, after studying it, Representative Cam Thi Manh believes that the method of listing prohibited acts may lead to an incomplete list of prohibited acts, lacking generality and comprehensiveness; some provisions overlap in content and meaning between clauses; some content has already been regulated in other documents or does not need to be regulated in this law. Therefore, she proposes reviewing the prohibited acts in the draft law to ensure comprehensiveness, generality, and avoid duplication.
Specifically, Clauses 2 and 3 of the draft overlap in terms of theft in general. Therefore, these two clauses could be merged into a single clause to provide a general regulation prohibiting the theft of electricity and electrical equipment. At the same time, the verb "sabotage" in Clause 3 should be replaced with the words and phrases "destruction" and "intentionally damaging electrical equipment" to ensure consistency with legal provisions on administrative and criminal liability 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 summarized.
On the other hand, describing prohibited behaviors using an enumerative method is unscientific and not rigorous. Therefore, it is proposed to unify and generalize the regulations in clauses 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 into a single clause as follows: "It is strictly prohibited to commit acts that violate regulations in the operation, exploitation, management, and use of electricity, the safety protection corridor of power facilities, regulations on the protection of power facilities, electrical safety, and the safety of dams and hydroelectric reservoirs."
Regarding Clause 12, which prohibits acts of "harassment, inconvenience, and illicit profiteering in electricity activities and electricity use," the representative argued that in this case, harassment should be regulated by ethical norms within the internal rules and regulations of the agency or unit, which would be more appropriate. As for the act of "illegal profiteering in electricity activities and electricity use," this provision is unclear and unnecessary in this law, as the law already has general provisions for handling responsibility for illicit and 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 that pass through the administrative boundaries of two or more provincial-level administrative units, in cases where the State requests land allocation or land lease according to the provisions of the Land Law. However, according to Clause 3, Article 31 of the Investment Law, the Prime Minister approves investment policies for "Investment projects that simultaneously fall under the authority of two or more Provincial People's Committees to approve investment policies."
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 as follows: The Prime Minister approves investment policies for power grid investment projects with voltage levels of 110kV and 220kV passing through the administrative boundaries of two or more provincial-level administrative units.
Clause 3 of Article 19 of the draft Law only stipulates the dossier, procedures, and process for approving the investment policy of hydropower projects, but does not specify the competent authority for approving the investment policy. Therefore, the representative proposes adding a specific regulation on the competent authority for approving the investment policy of hydropower projects.
Regarding the principles for granting electricity operation licenses as stipulated in Article 47 of the draft Law, Clause 1 of Article 47 states: “The electricity activity areas requiring licenses include: electricity generation, electricity transmission, electricity distribution, wholesale electricity sales, and retail electricity sales.” This regulation does not include “Electricity Sector Consulting” activities. However, current electricity laws contain very specific regulations on “Electricity Sector Consulting” activities and the licensing of such activities.
Therefore, Representative Cam Thi Man proposed adding "Electricity Sector Consulting" as a licensed activity. She also suggested adding regulations on the conditions for granting electricity sector operating licenses in the field of electricity sector consulting, because electrical works are specialized technical works that can easily cause safety hazards to people and equipment if the design and supervision are not technically sound; therefore, providing specialized consulting services for electrical works requires sufficient capacity and expertise in design and supervision.
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
Comment (0)