MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE | SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM |
No.: 25/2018/TT-BCT | Hanoi, September 12, 2018 |
CIRCULAR
AMENDING AND SUPPLEMENTING THE CIRCULAR NO. 16/2014/TT-BCT DATED MAY 29, 2014 OF THE MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE ON ELECTRICITY PRICES
Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 98/2017/ND-CP dated August 18, 2017 defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Industry and Trade;
Pursuant to the Law on electricity dated December 03, 2004 and the Law on amendments to the Law on electricity dated November 20, 2012;
Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 137/2013/ND-CP dated October 21, 2013 detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on electricity and the Law on amendments to the Law on electricity;
Pursuant to the Decision No. 24/2017/QD-TTg dated June 30, 2017 on mechanism for adjustment of average retail electricity price;
Pursuant to the Decision No. 28/2014/QD-TTg dated April 07, 2014 by the Prime Minister on structure of electricity retail tariff;
At the request of the General Director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam;
The Minister of Industry and Trade promulgates a Circular amending and supplementing the Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BCT dated May 29, 2014 of the Minister of Industry and Trade on electricity prices.
Article 1. Amendments and supplements to the Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BCT dated May 29, 2014 of the Minister of Industry and Trade on electricity prices (hereinafter referred to as “Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BCT”)
1. The following Point c is added to Clause 2 Article 3:
“c) With regard to an urban area or a multistory building of which houses and apartments have been transferred to clients but the electrical grid is not yet transferred to the competent electricity agency because of failure to complete property statement procedures: Pending the transfer of the electrical grid and electric consumption by clients, the buyer and the seller shall, based on the actual consumption of electricity, carry out an agreement on the amount of electricity to which the retail price for domestic purpose is applied and the amount of electricity to which the retail price for non-domestic purposes (such as production, business, service provision, etc.) is applied; this agreement shall be used as the basis for application of electricity prices. The price of electricity used for domestic purpose shall be applied to total amount of electricity used by the buyer which is determined by the amount of electricity of each level multiplied by the number of households using electricity for domestic purpose (based on actual purposes of electricity consumption, apartment sales agreement, record of apartment transfer, family register, temporary residence register or document certifying registered temporary residence granted by local police agency)."
2. Title of Article 6 is amended and Clause 1a is added to Clause 1 Article 6 as follows:
“Article 6. Principles for determining wholesale price and conditions for application of wholesale price
1a. Principles for determining wholesale price
When adjusting the retail prices of electricity, the wholesale price of electricity sold to retailers shall be also adjusted by multiplying the decrease in the current wholesale price by the planned increase in the consumer price index (CPI) adopted by the National Assembly in the year of adjustment of retail prices. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall provide guidance for determining the decrease in wholesale prices, which is not yet available, of new retailers buying wholesale electricity.”
3. Clause 1 Article 12 is amended as follows:
“1. The wholesale price of electricity in rural areas shall apply to retailers of electricity to consumers in rural areas (except the cases prescribed in Article 13, Article 14 and Article 15 of the Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BCT and Clause 4 Article 1 hereof) for the amount of wholesale electricity measured by the summation meter installed at the electrical substation, regardless of the electrical substation installed by either the buyer or the seller.”
4. The following Article 15a is added following Article 15:
“Article 15a. Wholesale price of electricity in markets
1. The wholesale price of electricity in markets shall apply to retailers of electricity to consumers in markets in accordance with the criteria set forth in the Government's Decree No. 02/2003/ND-CP dated January 14, 2003 and the Government's Decree No. 114/2009/ND-CP dated December 23, 2009 (regardless of geographic locations of the market).
2. Retailers of electricity in markets are not eligible for application of voltage-level based electricity price as regulated in Article 4 of the Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BCT and “time of day" based electricity price as regulated in Article 5 of the Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BCT.
3. The wholesale price of electricity in markets shall be the retail price of electricity for business in normal hours at a voltage level of less than 6 kV as regulated by Article 8 of the Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BCT, deducting 10.6%.”
5. Point c Clause 4 Article 10 is amended as follows:
“c) In case tenants are students or workers (not a household):
- If a tenant enters into a lease agreement with a lease period of at least 12 months and has completed procedures for registration of temporary residence, the house owner or the tenant's representative shall enter into a power purchase agreement (accompanied by the house owner's commitment to make electricity bill payment);
- If the lease period is less than 12 months and the house owner fails to declare the number of occupants using electricity as regulated, the retail price of electricity for domestic purpose at level 3 (from 101 kWh to 200 kWh) shall apply to total amount of electricity measured by the electric meter.
If the house owner has completed procedures for declaration of the number of occupants using electricity in the house, the electricity seller shall decide the limit on amount of electricity based on the temporary residence register or the document certifying registered temporary residence granted by local police agency; Every four occupants shall be considered as a household for deciding the limit on amount of electricity. To be specific: 01 occupant, 02 occupants, 03 occupants and 04 occupants are regarded as 1/4 of a household, 1/2 of a household, 3/4 of a household and a household respectively. In case of change in the number of occupants, the house owner shall inform the seller to adjust the limit on amount of electricity for calculating electricity bill.
The seller is entitled to monthly inspect and request the buyer to present the temporary residence register to verify the number of occupants in the house.”
6. The following Clause 9 is added to Article 10:
“9. If the buyer provides false information in the declaration of the number of occupants with the aims of achieving a higher limit on amount of electricity for domestic purpose, the seller is entitled to claim compensation and impose penalty for breach of the power purchase agreement in conformity with regulations in the Circular No. 27/2013/TT-BCT dated October 31, 2013 by the Ministry of Industry and Trade or its amending or superseding documents.”
Article 2. Effect
1. This Circular shall come into force from October 26, 2018.
2. Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this Circular should be reported to the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam for consideration and resolution within its competence or reporting the Ministry of Industry and Trade for solving./.
| MINISTER |
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