The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) published on Thursday, June 29, an ordinance that gives priority status to the approval process for infrastructure investment projects specifically in the electricity distribution sector, thus facilitating the issuance (with tax benefits) of 12,431 debentures by the distributors.
In practice, Ordinance No. 245/17 de-bureaucratizes the process of fulfilling the necessary requirements for projects to be categorized as priorities. The procedure is simplified, since the priority projects are those included in the annual investment plan approved by the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), as long as the requirements of Administrative Rule No. 245/17 are filled in. Previously, approval process took longer since each project was evaluated individually.
It is important to note that the ordinances chosen as priority projects under the terms of Ordinance No. 505/16 are still valid. In the event that a concessionaire holds a project classified as priority and understands that a new request is addressed under the terms of Ordinance No. 245/17, it must indicate (per the declaration of Annex III to Ordinance No. 245/17) the existence of already approved projects under Ordinance No. 505/16.
The measure was taken in the context of the recently launched federal incentive policies, such as the power generation and transmission projects published by MME in May of this year.
Ordinance No. 245/17 facilitates the funds raising for investors in this sector. Therefore, the distributors will be able to make their projects more feasible, reducing their considerable dependence on public and state banks in the typical sector’s financing models.
