The governor of Rio de Janeiro signed Law No. 8,953/20, which regulates, at the state level, the Economic Freedom Law (Federal Law No. 13,874/19) and classifies low risk activities that individuals or legal entities may perform in the state of Rio de Janeiro without the need for any public act of release.
A public act of release, as determined by paragraph 6 of article 1 of Federal Law No. 13,874/19, is the licensing, authorization, concession, registration, permitting, notification, accreditation, study, planning, recording, and the other acts required, under any denomination, by an agency or entity of the Public Administration in the application of legislation, as a condition for the exercise of economic activity, including the beginning, continuation, and ending for installation, construction, operation, production, management, use, exercise, or realization, in the public or private sphere, of an activity, service, establishment, profession, installation, operation, product, equipment, vehicle, or building, and others.
The legal text lists 289 low-risk economic activities that will not require any public act of release, such as issuance of operating licenses, including: legal services, real estate management and administration, consulting in information technology, rental and purchase and sale of owned real estate, retailing of jewelry, optics, stationery, watchmaking, and food services for events and receptions (buffet).
The list of activities is exemplary, that is, the Public Administration may waive the need for public acts to release other activities, either ex officio or upon request, except for those enterprises and activities that use environmental resources, potentially or effectively, causing significant environmental impact, subject to environmental licensing by the state, which continue to be subject to the state environmental legislation in force.
Municipalities may also create their own laws on the subject, observing as minimum parameters those defined in Federal Law No. 13,874/19, the new state law, and Resolution No. 51/19 of the Committee for the Management of the National Network for the Simplification of Registration and Legalization of Companies and Businesses (CGSIM).
The law reduces bureaucracy and provides more legal certainty at the state level for the development of these economic activities.
