The Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Hồng Diên answered questions at the 36th session of the National Assembly's Standing Committee held in Hà Nội on August 21. — Photo congthuong.vn

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will focus on implementing a series of solutions to combat counterfeit and fake goods, especially in the e-commerce marketplace, the Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Hồng Diên said at the 36th session of the National Assembly's Standing Committee held in Hà Nội on August 21.

At the session, deputy Chu Thị Hồng Thái from Lạng Sơn Province, said that according to the report from the General Secretary of the National Assembly, preventing and combating smuggling and counterfeit goods has not been totally effective.

Counterfeit and smuggled goods of unknown origin are still being sold widely with increasingly sophisticated tricks, mainly in cyberspace.

Thái recommended that the ministry should have strong enough sanctions to deter violations of goods' origin and a roadmap for implementation of the sanctions.

Responding to Thái's request, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Hồng Diên said that in a market economy, preventing and combating trade fraud, smuggling and counterfeit goods, poor quality goods and tax evasion, are important tasks.

But they are also huge challenges for countries, including Việt Nam, especially in the e-commerce space.

"Recently, MoIT has coordinated with relevant agencies to advise competent authorities to issue many mechanisms and policies to improve the effectiveness of this work," Diên said.

They include the issuance of the Law on Consumer Protection, the project against counterfeit and poor quality goods, amendments to and supplements of regulations on penalties in traditional trade and e-commerce.

At the same time, the ministry has implemented a mechanism for receiving and processing information about counterfeit and poor quality goods via the portal on e-commerce management and protection of consumer rights. This is a national portal of the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency, MoIT.

In addition, it has coordinated with other forces in preventing and combating commercial fraud, including the police, border guard, customs and members of National Steering Committee against Smuggling, Counterfeit Goods and Trade Fraud (National Steering Committee 389) in localities to request e-commerce websites to review and remove thousands of fake and poor-quality goods with numerous violations.

The ministry has further strengthened dissemination to guide consumers in finding out violations and build a database for sharing the information with relevant agencies. The agencies include the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the State Bank and the Ministry of Finance.

Thanks to carrying out the series of measures, tens of thousands of violations have been handled recently, so the State has collected tens of thousands of billions of Vietnamese đồng in fines for violations in commerce.

Diên said that in the future, the ministry will continue to work with competent authorities to amend and supplement regulations on penalties for the violations in commerce, especially e-commerce, to protect consumer rights.

The ministry will effectively implement the project fighting counterfeit and poor quality goods issued by the Prime Minister.

It will also improve the effectiveness of the portal in receiving and processing information on violations of commercial fraud.

The ministry will promote communication to help consumers improve their knowledge about counterfeit and poor quality goods.

Electricity prices

Responding to the questions related to electricity prices, Minister Diên said that the tiered electricity price list is a popular model in all countries to encourage customers to use electricity economically and efficiently and enhance social responsibility of environmental protection. Because more output in electricity production will create more impacts on the environment.

Retail electricity prices have six levels, according to Decision No. 28/2014/QĐ-TTg of the Prime Minister.

Implementing the Resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the direction of the Government, MoIT and relevant offices have amended and supplemented this decision, Diên said.

Accordingly, in the draft submitted to the Government, the retail electricity prices are restructured into five levels.

Of which, level 1 is increased from 0 - 50kWh to 0 - 100kWh as proposed by the National Assembly. This calculation method will contribute to supporting poorer consumers, he said.

In addition, to eliminate the unreasonable gap between electricity users, the draft proposes adjusting the electricity price frames in production and daily life so that they are closer.

Some production sectors are adjusted to match the price list in the service sector to ensure no cross-subsidy between electricity users. — VNS