Better understand the impacts of refunding undue amounts on the electricity bill

The country's president, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), approved a legislative proposal that establishes the consumer's right to reimbursement of overcharges in the electricity bill. Before receiving the president's sanction, the new law was voted both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Federal Senate. In this sense, check out this article for more details about the refund of undue amounts on the light bill according to the new law.

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Better understand the impacts of refunding undue amounts on the electricity bill

The National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) will be responsible for implementing the measure and returning amounts to customers who identify erroneous charges in their accounts.

The Federal Supreme Court decided in 2017 that the ICMS charged from energy distributors did not need to be included in the PIS/Cofins calculation base that affected prices. This decision allowed the distributors to receive a reimbursement of almost BRL 60 billion. In this sense, Aneel data show that there is still R$ 47.6 billion in consumer refunds to be made.

tariff review

The law also requires Aneel to carry out an “extraordinary” tariff review to speed up the refund procedure. In this case, the PIS/Cofins credits, which were paid in full and which were contested by the distributors until January 2022, must be passed on to consumers in the form of a reduction in prices.

Will the value of the light bill decrease?

According to experts, the law that provides for the reimbursement of double charges on the electricity bill will not bring immediate positive impacts to consumers. What actually happens is that, in some states, the additional “credit” will be overshadowed by new increases in the electricity bill. As in the case of São Paulo, for example, where the average increase in energy prices will be 12.4% as of this month, according to Enel Distribuição São Paulo (Enel SP).