President Jair Bolsonaro signed Provisional Measure 950/2020 yesterday (08/04), which establishes important measures to deal with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in the electricity sector.

The Government resolves the two most urgent issues identified by the teams from the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Economy: the loss of the payment capacity of low-income consumers, beneficiaries of the social tariff, and the loss of the financial capacity of the energy distributors electricity, with an increase in defaults and a reduction in energy consumption.

The MP exempts consumers who benefit from the social tariff from payment for consumption of up to 220 kWh / month, for 3 months. Therefore, an investment of R $ 900 million is foreseen in the Energy Development Account, which will be made possible through the creation of extraordinary credit, subject of Provisional Measure 949/2020, also signed today by the president.

In addition to the measure bringing benefits to the most vulnerable consumers, the MP addresses the urgent problem faced by the electricity sector, which is the cash flow of electricity distributors, responsible for collecting the sector.

The Government establishes the conditions to make credit operations feasible, with a view to providing financial relief to distributors, in the face of the sudden decrease in the market. The measure will enable distributors to continue honoring their commitments to other sectoral agents, preserving the sustainability of the electricity sector. In addition, it will ease the tariff pressure on consumers in 2020, due to extraordinary costs inserted in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It should be noted that the Government continues to work towards the adoption of additional initiatives that seek to preserve the sustainability and economic and financial balance of the sector, guaranteeing security in the supply of electricity and fair prices for consumers.