With the collaboration of Ericka Araújo
The National Congress overturned, late in the afternoon of this Thursday (14), the two vetoes made by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the sanctioning process of the 14.300 Law.
The overturning occurred after an agreement between party leaders. The decision was made in a single session between the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate seven months after the publication of the GD Legal Framework.
The document approved by the chief executive in January of this year did not authorize the articles that provided for the inclusion of floating plants (Art. 11 § 3) in the distributed generation segment and projects with REIDI benefits (Art. 28).
When forwarding the vote, the government leader in Congress, Senator Eduardo Gomes (PL-TO), cited the agreement between leaders to overturn the two provisions vetoed by President Jair Bolsonaro. According to him, the Executive Branch should issue a provisional measure on the subject.
“[Both provisions] will be overturned, but I want to make it public that in the conversation I had with leaders of the parties that defend the overturning of this veto, even because of the impossibility of this veto having a clear consequence, the ministry itself expressed a commitment to issuing a provisional measure making a correction that does not allow for the possibility of an increase in energy or a lack of implementation conditions or the market issue or, mainly, what is important, which is the consumer's view. There is this public observation about the need for a clearer provisional measure on the subject,” said Gomes.
What changes in practice?
According to Luiz Piauhylino Filho, director of Sunlution and a pioneering professional in the installation of floating power plant projects in Brazil, the lifting of the veto on the application is excellent news for the sector.
“Previously, a floating solar plant could only have 5 MW per municipality and reservoir. Now, with the veto overturned, more than one distributed generation plant (floating solar) with up to 5 MWp can be built in the same reservoir/municipality. It will no longer be necessary to distribute projects across each municipality to be limited to 5 MW.”
Regarding the REIDI benefit, Einar Tribuci, a lawyer specializing in the electricity sector and tax law, founding partner of Tribuci Advogados and legal and tax director of ABGD (Brazilian Association of Distributed Generation) highlights three important points.
“Five months after the publication of Law 5/14.300, the National Congress overturned the presidential veto to the sole paragraph of art. 2022, which now makes it clear that distributed mini-generation projects will also be considered as electricity generation infrastructure, for the purposes of qualifying for the REIDI benefit, which exempts PIS and COFINS related to investments in the implementation of energy assets; investments through the Infrastructure Participation Investment Fund (FIP-IE); and incentivized debentures, real estate receivables certificates (CRI) and issuance quotas of credit rights investment funds (FIDC),” he listed.
“There was an understanding of ANEEL and the MME that distributed generation would not be eligible for the REIDI benefit, but which is now made clear through the sole paragraph of Law 14.300/2022. However, the REIDI benefit requires a procedure that takes some time to be granted, and which may conflict with the implementation schedule of plants that intend to benefit from the current energy credit compensation rule (100%)”, explains Tribuci.
“Regarding the qualification of distributed minigeneration as energy generation assets to access the capital market, effectiveness is automatic. There was already a lot of appetite for this type of asset, but it must now be boosted at a time when traditional financing has interest rates that often make investment unfeasible”, concludes the lawyer.
