EN 
PT_BR 
From one day to the next Brazilian government allowed various photovoltaic solar energy equipment to have import taxes reduced. Photovoltaic modules for solar energy, including monocrystalline and bifacial, as well as inverters and other accessories, were included in a list of capital goods and will benefit from the import tax, according to publications in the Official Gazette of the Union this Monday ( 07/20/2020).
Camex (Chamber of Foreign Trade), of the Ministry of Economy, added several equipment for generating solar energy to the list of so-called ex-tariffs, a temporary reduction in the import tax rate when there is no equivalent national production.
Ex-tariffs are granted upon request from interested companies and the process is quite complex and for a specific period of time. This measure will take effect from August 1st, valid until the end of 2021.
Aldo Solar congratulates this initiative, highlighting that it is very positive and tends to further promote solar energy businesses in DG (distributed generation) in the medium term.
Some solar panel manufacturers whose models do not have equivalent national production benefited, as they have high efficiency and powers greater than 400W, including monocrystalline and bifacial ones, in addition to some types of single-phase and three-phase inverters for mini generation systems.
During this period, the import duty on selected products will be reduced by an average of 13%. Not all equipment will be reduced and, in GD, only a minority of products will be covered.
In this sense, for resellers and installers who are waiting for the turn of the month to purchase photovoltaic equipment at a discount, I bring bad news: the tax reduction cannot be applied retroactively to the current stocks of manufacturers and distributors.
The measure only applies to the import of equipment for generating solar energy from August 1st and the reduction in prices should only be felt in approximately 80 days if we consider the 30 days for the international manufacture of the equipment, 40 days of sea transport and 10 days for tax clearance.
Another point that shook the market this week was the occurrence of several explosions at the Chinese GCL factory, responsible for the global production of 10% photovoltaic cells, used in the manufacture of solar panels. As a result of the incident, there will be a shortage of raw materials, leading to an increase in the prices of this equipment around the world.
For everything that has been exposed in this text and with GD with growth rates of 77,83% in the first half of 2020 alone, the time is not to wait, but to continue moving forward.
Under the impact of the global spread of Covid-19, manufacturers around the world saw a drop in order demand and managed to reduce prices by up to 20%. And at Aldo Solar, this reduction has already been passed on to several models of solar energy generators and other photovoltaic equipment now in July.
With the growth of distributed generation in the country, which goes against the performance of the Brazilian economy, with an expected drop in GDP (gross domestic product) by 6%, according to projections by Ipea (Institute of Applied Economic Research), this is the time to move forward, taking advantage of the drop in prices to accelerate the competitiveness of resellers and installers, with sunlight as its main ally.
