Rural low voltage power grid 'stuck' with documents and procedures

(Baonghean) - Handing over the rural low voltage grid to the electricity sector for management is a correct policy of the State, because people will be able to use electricity safely and stably, without having to bear additional costs. However, up to this point, there are still some communes in the province that have not yet carried out the handover. The issue of capital repayment after receiving still has many problems and has not been implemented due to the lack of related documents and procedures.

No agreement on handover plan

Quynh Ba Commune (Quynh Luu) is one of the few localities in the province that has not yet handed over the LDDHANT to the Electricity sector for management. Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Van Linh - Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Ba Commune said: The local government highly agrees with the handover of the LDDHANT to the Electricity sector for management, however, because the Electricity Cooperative has contributed shares to upgrade the grid in recent years, the handover of the LDDHANT to the Electricity sector is the Cooperative's initiative. The local government's wish is to hand over as soon as possible.

Mr. Vu Huy Trung - Director of Quynh Ba Electricity Cooperative said: In 2004, the People's Committee of the commune assigned the Electricity Cooperative to manage the electricity project, the Cooperative organized the equitization of electricity. There were 38 member households participating in paying shares of 134 million VND, accounting for 49% of the value of the commune's electricity system (at that time). Over the years, the Cooperative has regularly upgraded the grid system, ensuring safety for customers using electricity. The Cooperative agreed with the policy of handing over the LDHANT system to the Electricity industry for management, but the Cooperative requested that after the decision of the Provincial People's Committee approving the handover documents, it must pay the Cooperative in advance before handing over, because it is related to the shares of the members.

Mr. Vu Huy Trung - Director of Quynh Ba Electricity Cooperative said that due to equitization, the power grid system in the commune is always upgraded.

Nghi Lien commune (Vinh city) is also a locality that has not yet handed over the LĐHANT to the Electricity sector for management. Through discussion, Mr. Nguyen Dang Tuan - Director of Nghi Lien General Service Agricultural Cooperative said: The reason why the local LĐHANT is slow to hand over to the Electricity sector for management is because there are still some details of the dossier, in which the sectors have not yet re-evaluated the value of the asset volume. In 2014, the Cooperative proactively handed over the power grid to the Electricity sector for management. The Commune People's Committee and the District Electricity Department valued the power grid assets at more than 3 billion VND, and prepared the handover dossier, but up to now the provincial sectors have not yet re-evaluated, so there is a delay. The Cooperative's point of view is that before handing over, the Provincial People's Committee must have a clear decision on which agency will refund the money to the people and the time of refund, so that the Cooperative has a legal basis to implement.

The reason why some communes and some clusters have not yet handed over the LDHANT to the Electricity sector for management, according to the report of Nghe An Electricity Company, is because: Cooperatives or rural electricity organizations are doing profitable business so they have not agreed to hand over. Assets invested by cooperatives in the form of shareholders, or people's contributions with large value, without documents proving the source of capital, so there are difficulties and obstacles in repayment. Although the People's Committees of districts, Nghe An Electricity Company, Commune People's Committees and Cooperatives have worked many times, the Cooperatives do not have a consistent point of view.

Many electrical projects do not have valid documents.

Regarding the capital repayment after receiving the LDHANT, most of the people when we mentioned it were wondering why the State has not yet refunded the money contributed to building the power grid to the people from decades ago. Mr. Bui Thai Chau, Bac Lien hamlet, Dien Kim commune (Dien Chau) shared: Although the commune handed over the power grid to the State more than 7 years ago, up to now, we, the people, have not received any refund. In meetings with voters in the locality, this is always an issue that many people have petitioned. Talking to reporters, Mr. Pham Xuan Bang - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee shared: According to Circular 32/BTC, the commune handed over the LDHANT to the Electricity sector for management in 2009 with a total value at that time of more than 148 million VND and this was money contributed by the people. The locality has prepared a dossier to send to the Electricity sector for a long time but up to now it has not been refunded.

According to Mr. Trinh Phuong Tram - Director of Nghe An Electricity Company, based on the guidance of Circular 06/2010 (TT06) and Joint Circular - BTC dated February 3, 2010 of the Ministry of Finance - Industry and Trade; Circular 32/2013 (TT32) and Joint Circular - MOIT - BTC dated December 4, 2013: For LĐHANT projects handed over before TT06 takes effect, the handover decision or handover minutes between the two parties will remain unchanged. Most of the communes in the province handed over before February 3, 2010 and the handover principle is based on capital increase and decrease, so they are not subject to refund.

For communes receiving after Circular 06, the communes voluntarily agreed to hand over the capital increase or decrease, or hand over the original state for the Electricity sector to sell electricity, so they are not subject to refund. For grid assets built with local capital: At the time of preparing the handover dossier, because there were no valid documents and papers proving the origin of the assets, the capital source was only temporarily recorded according to the declaration of the locality. The handing party is responsible for preparing the refund dossier according to the instructions of Circular 32 to submit to the competent authorities for approval. However, in the whole province, there are only 86 localities with project dossiers with a total value of 33.5 billion VND.

Power grid system in Quynh Ba commune.

Also according to Mr. Tram, among the 86 projects accepted according to the refund principle according to the above instructions of TT06 and TT32, currently only 20 investors have sent Nghe An Electricity Company some documents, but due to the lack of complete documents according to the instructions and the list of people's money collection, the Corporation did not accept.

The reason, according to Circular 32/2013, is that the documents for refund must not be re-created, corrected, or erased. The refund documents include the project documents and documents proving the origin of the construction capital. In reality, most of the power grids in communes are built spontaneously, or the investment procedures are not in accordance with the prescribed investment and construction procedures. On the other hand, most of the power grids were built a long time ago, so the documents and documents are not available or are incomplete, so the source of capital cannot be proven according to the instructions. The handover documents established between Nghe An Electricity Company and the commune only temporarily recorded the source of capital according to the local declaration, so the refund has not been implemented.

According to data from Nghe An Electricity Company, up to now, in the whole province, 421/423 communes have handed over the LDHANT to the Electricity sector for management, with 10,476 km of 0.4 KV power lines; 644,911 households using 1-phase electricity and 18,406 households using 3-phase electricity. The total value of receipt is nearly 453 billion VND, of which WB loan capital is over 250 billion VND, local counterpart capital is nearly 21.6 billion VND, capital contributed by people and other organizations is nearly 181 billion VND.

X.Hoang - Q.An