Government sanctions law that returns tax charged on the electricity bill

Consumers across the country will have a discount on the electricity tariff to meet the requirements of law 14,385, published in the Official Gazette this Tuesday (28). The measure complies with the decision of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), which ruled that the collection of ICMS on PIS/Cofins on the electricity bill was unconstitutional.

Approved by the Chamber earlier this month, the bill with the possibility of devolution was sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) without any veto. The measure changes previous legislation of operation of Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency) to allow the regulatory agency to return the values.

The return should come in minor readjustments in energy bills. The measure has already had effects on some readjustments. This is the case of Enel, which serves 7.6 million consumer units in São Paulo and had the 2022 increase approved by the agency this Tuesday.

According to Aneel’s details, in the case of Enel’s tariff calculation, which will have an average readjustment of 12.04% as of Monday (4), the return of PIS/Cofins credits was responsible for -8.70% in the composition of the light operator’s average readjustment index. Otherwise, the increase would be greater, but the percentage was not informed.

Data released by the Chamber and the Senate show that, of the R$ 60.3 billion in credits to be returned by the Union to distributors, R$ 47.6 billion have not yet been returned to consumers. The rest have entered tariff revisions since 2020, which would have resulted in an average reduction of 5% by then.

The same reduction rule was used to approve the tariff increase in Tocantins, by Energisa, whose reduction based on the return of PIS/Cofins is 9.76% in the tariff readjustment index of the distributor, which serves 637 thousand consumer units.

São Paulo had even more discount, but bill will go up

In São Paulo, in addition to the discount allowed by the new legislation, Aneel also considered the law that limits the collection of ICMS (Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services) to 18% in the state, which will also apply to electricity.

“The complementary law 194, enacted last Thursday (23/6), which reduces the ICMS rate on energy to 18%, will also impact the final price to be paid by consumers. The application of this law, which depends on the states, will contribute to reduce the final energy price of Enel-SP consumers by approximately -10.4%”, says the agency.

Other measures were the proposed regulation of the “CDE Modicidade Eletrobras”, on the inclusion of postage in the electricity bill with the privatization of Eletrobras, which contributed -2.84% to the reduction of impacts on the readjustment, in addition to the sectoral loan of the water scarcity (-2.82%) and the approval of payments from the transfer of the contracted power from Itaipu (-1.26%).

Even so, residential consumers in São Paulo will pay, on average, 10.01% more for electricity. The maximum average readjustment in the state will be 18.03% for high voltage consumers.

Understand

The text approved in the Chamber of Deputies on June 7 was proposed by the Senate, to serve the distributors that filed the action and won the case in the STF. Only two distributors did not file lawsuits. In the Chamber, the bill was attached to another, which was also from the Senate, but started in 2022.

Savings credits were returned in January

The electricity bill has been putting pressure on household inflation since 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic and water crisis. With low reservoirs, thermal power plants and consumers at home, the tariff exploded, raising complaints and defaults.

As a measure against the water crisis, the federal government launched, in September 2021, a program that gave a discount on the bill to those who saved between 10% and 20% on electricity. The discount was given in January, based on the December account, according to the Union. It was not informed, however, how many consumers were benefited.