VietNamNet Bridge – No hydropower project developer has paid money to the Forest Protection and Development Fund as required.

Under the current regulations, individual and institutional investors who take forest land to build hydropower plants have to re-plant the forests or pay money to the forest development fund.

However, Pham Hong Luong, Deputy Director of the Planning and Finance Department of the General Forestry Directorate, has affirmed that no enterprise has paid money to the fund so far.

A government’s report showed that since 2006, more than 20,000 hectares of forest land has been used for hydropower plants, but investors have re-planted 1,000 hectares.

According to Luong, the figure shows two problems. First, there exist problems in the approval and licensing of hydropower projects in localities. And second, hydropower plant developers do not really care about re-planting forests.

Commenting about the modest figure of 1,000 hectares of re-planted forests, Luong said that local authorities should not be blamed for this. In fact, local authorities and local people want to develop forests, but they don’t have money to do that because they have not received money from hydropower investors.

The General Forestry Directorate has sent a dispatch to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, requesting the ministry to instruct the Electricity of Vietnam, the investor of many hydropower projects, and small and medium power companies to fulfill their duty of paying VND300 billion which is the environment service fee.

Luong complained that the legal loopholes have lent a hand to hydropower investors to defy the laws. In the report to the government and the National Assembly’s Environment Committee, the forestry directorate pointed out the problems.

While the current laws stipulate that investors have the duty of replanting forests and paying money to the forest development fund, there is no provision about how the investors would be punished if they don’t obey the laws.

In the latest news, Le Tuan Phong, Deputy General Director of the Energy Directorate under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, affirmed at the press conference on November 4 that enterprises have paid hundreds of billions of dong to the forest development fund.

Phong denied the fact that EVN and other power companies have not paid hundreds of billions of dong worth of environment service fees and thousands of hectares of forests have not been reimbursed.

He went on to say that it is unreasonable to say enterprises refuse to pay money, affirming that only a few investors might ask for the payment delay due to financial difficulties.

Dinh The Phuc, a senior official of the ministry, affirmed that EVN has paid all the money it has to pay, while other enterprises are put under the local authorities’ management. This means that it is the local authorities which have the responsibility of urging other investors to pay money.

According to Phuc, in 2012, his ministry once received a dispatch from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development about the VND300 billion worth of environment service fee. Shorty after receiving the dispatch, the ministry instructed EVN to pay money immediately.

“EVN reported that it has paid the fees for 2011 and 2012 already,” Phuc said.

Dat Viet