Conversion Bill No. 10 of 2025, originating from Provisional Measure No. 1.304/2025, provides for provisions concerning the REIDI (Special Incentive Regime for Infrastructure Development) benefit, as provided for in Federal Law No. 11.488 of 2007.
The first change, while commendable and signaling that the next frontier in the energy sector will indeed be energy storage, concerns the inclusion of energy storage systems in the REIDI benefit, even if the equipment technology originates from abroad, with an express prohibition on the requirement for local content.
Originally, REIDI did not require that the equipment be of national origin. On the contrary, Article 3 of Federal Law No. 11.488 of 2007 makes it clear that the benefit applies to the importation of machinery, apparatus, instruments, and equipment, which is why the new provision prohibiting the requirement for local content is ineffective.
The following provision, which stipulates that the REIDI tax waiver for storage systems will be limited to R$ 1 billion per fiscal year and will be in effect from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2030, is quite surprising.
Recognition of storage in Provisional Measure 1.304 is a victory for the sector, says ABSAE.
This is because the material limitation favors some, simply by virtue of the criterion of being ahead of schedule, to the detriment of later projects, even those that are qualitatively superior, causing competitive harm to the market, and also generating inefficiency for the public sector itself, since requests will be made without due documentary care, given the favoritism shown to pioneering efforts that are counterproductive to a quality energy transition.
The time limitation between 2026 and 2030 is contradictory to Complementary Law No. 214 of 2025 (The Tax Reform on goods and services), which expressly provided for the REIDI benefit, applicable to both CBS and IBS, but without distinguishing between sources or time frame.
This limitation, once again, hinders progress; instead of neutralizing fiscal issues to ensure fair competition, it ends up working in the opposite direction.
The second amendment stipulates that solar power generation systems, including micro and mini-distributed generation, eligible for the REIDI benefit, must include chemical energy storage systems.
The condition is based on the erroneous premise that any solar power generation system coupled with an energy storage system is improved, and it also increases costs to the point where the REIDI benefit ceases to be advantageous in these cases. Once again, what we see is an approach that creates competitive inequalities between energy sources.
Although not related to REIDI, the regulation also introduced the possibility for the Executive Branch to reduce import tax rates related to BESS and its components to zero. It also failed to define what BESS is, as previous articles address the concept of an energy storage system.
Finally, regarding the effective date, the regulations related to REIDI have not been subject to any exceptions; therefore, they come into effect on the date of their publication.
The opinions and information expressed are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the author. Canal Solar.
