EN 
PT_BR 
O Government of Santa Catarina decided remove the limitation of the 48-month period granted to the ICMS exemption (Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services) in G.D. (distributed generation), as provided for in ICMS Agreement 16/2015.
That change occurred with the publication of the Agreement 114/2023, on August 8, 2023. The document removes the exception of Santa Catarina from paragraph § 3, keeping only the state of Paraná with the limitation of the 48-month period.
The document, in practice, amends ICMS Agreement No. 16/2015 and removes the 48-month limitation on granting the ICMS exemption benefit to own generation of solar energy and other renewable sources in Santa Catarina, as explained by Rodrigo Sauaia, CEO of ABSOLATE.
“The measure benefits both current solar DG consumers and future consumers who install the technology. In other words, the ICMS exemption for distributed generation in Santa Catarina, which was only valid for up to 48 months, is now valid for the entire useful life of the photovoltaic system”, he highlights.
Einar Tribuci, founding partner of Tribuci Lawyers and legal and tax director of ABGD (Brazilian Distributed Generation Association) highlights that measure is timely, even more so with the text of the Tax Reform (PEC 45/2019) approved in the Chamber of Deputies, which will limit the use of the Tax Benefits Compensation Fund.
“The text may still be changed by the Federal Senate and there may be some conflict regarding the benefits granted after May 2023, but we have to wait,” he said.
The lawyer also considers that the opportunity to amend ICMS Agreement No. 16/2015 could have been taken to change the reference to Normative Resolution No. 482/2012, and include Law no. 14,300/2022, but this does not invalidate the standard.
Solar GD in Santa Catarina
Currently, the state of Santa Catarina is the sixth in Brazil with the highest volume of installed power in the solar DG segment, with 1.33 GW, behind only Minas Gerais (3.09 GW); São Paulo (3.07 GW); Rio Grande do Sul (2.32 GW); Paraná (2.19 GW) and Mato Grosso (1.34 GW).
Santa Catarina's municipalities also currently have just over 80,900 photovoltaic systems installed using their own solar energy generation. Together, all these connections are responsible for supplying almost 100 thousand UCs (consumer units) across the state, according to data from ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency).
