NA Standing Committee reviews proposed changes to Electricity Law

The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee continued its sixth session on September 21, discussing draft laws amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Electricity and the Law on Tobacco Harm Prevention and Control.

Regarding the Law on Electricity, the draft comprises three articles revising and supplementing 23 provisions covering electricity development policies, planning and investment, renewable energy, electricity operation licences, the electricity market, power trading and pricing, and electricity safety.

Notably, the draft introduces peak, off-peak and normal-hour retail electricity prices for household customers when technical conditions permit. It empowers the Minister of Industry and Trade to approve the wholesale electricity price framework.

It also proposes a roadmap to eliminate cross-subsidisation among electricity customer groups in line with Resolution No. 70-NQ/TW, while revising pricing mechanisms and investment incentives for renewable and new-energy projects, electricity storage systems and other power sources.

According to a preliminary verification report, the NA Committee on Science, Technology and Environment basically agreed that electricity prices should reflect reasonable and legitimate costs, help mobilise investment resources, gradually eliminate cross-subsidies and support a competitive electricity market.

However, it stressed that pricing should take into account investment efficiency, risks and market conditions, and that investment and business risks should not be shifted entirely to the State, electricity purchasers or consumers.

The committee also called for clarification of the relationship between bidding results and subsequent contract negotiations, particularly on electricity prices and contract terms, to prevent renegotiation from changing investor selection results.

NA Standing Committee members agreed on the need to amend the law to institutionalise new Party and Politburo policies, remove obstacles to electricity projects, streamline administrative procedures and ensure consistency with related legislation.

Concluding the discussion, NA Vice President Nguyen Hong Dien asked relevant agencies to carefully review the scope of the amendments, ensuring that only necessary provisions with sufficient political, legal and practical foundations are revised.

He also requested comprehensive impact assessments of policies concerning renewable and new energy, offshore wind power, electricity storage and the electricity market, while ensuring a transparent, stable and predictable legal framework for the sector.

The same morning, the committee discussed amendments to the Law on Tobacco Harm Prevention and Control.

Deputy Minister of Health Vu Manh Ha said the draft maintains the law's existing scope while adding bans on the production, trading, storage, transportation, import, export, transit and use of e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and other tobacco products.

It also bans the production and trading of electronic devices, components and liquids used to manufacture or assemble such products, as well as the display of tobacco products. The draft adds definitions of e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, electronic devices, customised tobacco products and other tobacco products.

Presenting the verification report, Chairman of the NA Committee on Cultural and Social Affairs Nguyen Dac Vinh said the draft broadly aligns with Party policies on strengthening health-risk prevention and control.

The committee asked the compiling body to clarify relevant definitions and ensure they are precise enough to identify prohibited products and activities. It also called for feasible regulations on access to tobacco products by people under 18, tobacco displays, smoke-free places and tobacco sales, particularly online sales and age verification.

The NA Standing Committee requested a thorough assessment of proposed reductions in administrative procedures and business conditions for tobacco production and trading to ensure administrative reform does not weaken State management.

The committee also gave opinions on a revised draft law on donation, procurement and transplantation of human tissues and organs./.