VietNamNet Bridge – Taking away thousands of hectares of forests, hydropower plant developers have not paid the environment service fees and re-planted the forests.

Don’t pay fee because don’t have money

According to Mai Tan Len, Director of the Phu Yen provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund, the two hydropower plants Song Hinh and Krong H’nang still have not paid the environment service fees for the last three years.

The government, in a legal document which took effects on January 1, 2011, stipulates that the service fee is collected to pay to the owners of the forests in the localities where the investors develop their hydropower plants.

The Phu Yen provincial authorities have set the fee at VND20 per kwh of electricity generated.

Huynh Xuan Son, Deputy Chief Secretariat of the Phu Yen provincial People’s Committee, said the local authorities sent a dispatch to the two investors requesting to pay the fee, but the investors keep silent.

It is estimated that the three operational hydropower plants on Ba Ha, Hinh and Krong H’Nang rivers have to pay VND70 billion over the last three years if considering their electricity output.

However, only the Song Ba Ha hydropower plant has paid VND36 billion in the fee, while the other two have not paid any dong.

When asked about the fee payment, Pham Phong, General Director of Song Ba JSC--the developer of the Krong H’nang hydropower plant, said the water is insufficient for the plant to generate electricity this year. Meanwhile, he has to borrow money to run the plant, therefore, he still cannot arrange money to pay fee.

Phong promised that he would pay VND400 million in fee this week, while the remaining sum of VND9.6 billion would be paid in 2014.

Meanwhile, Vo Thanh Trung, General Director of Vinh Son – Song Hinh Hydropower JSC, the developer of Song Hinh hydropower plant, said the company has not paid fee because the company still has not reached a consensus with the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) on the electricity price.

“We are more dead than alive because we still cannot sign a contract on electricity sale with EVN since 2010,” he said. “The electricity price has just temporarily set up for tax calculation.”

Also according to Trung, he also has not paid any dong in fee for the Vinh Son hydropower plant in Binh Dinh province for the last three years.

Chopping 2,400 hectares of forests, replanting 22 hectares

In order to build three power plants of Song Ba Ha, Song Hinh and Krong H’nang, the investors destroyed 2,400 hectare of forests, mainly protective and special use forests. The Song Hinh project alone “swallowed” 1,900 hectares of the protective forests.

Under the current regulations, hydropower power project developers have to re-plant the forests they destroyed. However, only 22 hectares of forests have been planted over the last four years.

Phong has blamed this on the local authorities’ tardiness in allocating land for his company to plant forests.

Dinh Van Thuan, General Director of Song Ba Ha Hydropower JSC, also complained that there is no land allocated for the afforestation.

“We have proposed to pay money instead of the afforestation, but the provincial authorities have not replied,” Thuan said.

Chi Mai