Ministry of Industry and Trade deregulated energy labeling
On 28/12/2016, Minister Tran Tuan Anh signed the 36/2016/ TT-BCT Circular to replace the 07/2012 Circular on energy labeling regulations for energy-consuming vehicles and equipment. This action is believed to lessen the administrative burdens for many businesses.
Together with the plan to simplify 123 administrative procedures in the early of December, the deregulation of Circular 37 for the textile sector or the launch of the online public service portal, the emendation of Circular 07 again illustrated the determination of Minister Tran Tuan Anh on his statement: ‘the Ministry of Industry and Trade will take the lead in the reform of administrative procedures’.
The Energy Labeling Program was implemented by the General Department of Energy (Ministry of Industry and Trade) in 2006, which helped to raise customers’ awareness about energy products, enable customers to identify energy-saving products, eliminate low-efficiency equipment, reduce energy consumption and protect the environment. The most popular products to be certified and stamped include air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, electric fans, rice cookers and lighting equipment.
However, in the process of implementation, the program revealed many drawbacks. A large number of businesses involved in export and import activities find the circular 07 cumbersome, costly, time-consuming and even impractical. In specific, followed by the circular, enterprises said they had to test more than once for the same product model to meet the requirements and to get the certification, which only valid for 6 months. At the same time, the energy testing laboratories in the country are limited. For example, currently, there is only one nationwide laboratory for testing energy efficiency in Hanoi. Therefore, it is inconvenient and costly for enterprises in the Central and Southern Vietnam to test their equipment and obtain the certification. Besides that, the circular also creates some other difficulties such as long lead time in checking procedures, limited choices on foreign testing labs, etc.
Having acknowledged the benefits being outweighed by the disadvantages of the circular, Minister Tran Tuan Anh signed the Circular 36 in order to resolve all of the issues with Circular 07 and to create favorable conditions for energy labeling procedures, ventilating the flow of imports and exports while ensuring the benefits for the customers.
Based on the Circular 07, Circular 36 is amended as follow:
- Change the method in providing certification for vehicles and equipment, create favorable conditions for enterprises in implementing energy labeling procedures: Enterprises are in charge of announcing their energy efficiency and labeling their imported and exported vehicles and equipment. Enterprises should be responsible for the quality of their products.
- Allow businesses to use the test results of energy efficiency for all products and goods produced domestically or imported with the same model, from the same manufacturer and having the same origin and technical characteristics.
- The period of validity for the test results is unlimited.
- Allow the energy labeling experiment to be performed by independent testing laboratories or by the domestic and international manufacturers.
- Remove the whole chapter II of Circular 07 which prescribes the conditions, procedures in specifying appropriate testing organizations.
With the new circular, enterprises can now save time and reduce costs for taking the energy efficiency test and obtaining the certification. In return, it is important for businesses to be responsible for the origin and the quality of their own products.
Sources: 1, 2