Comptroller General of the Republic ratifies the legality of the elimination of the type B compensation of the green tax applied by the CNE

This is an automatic translation of the original release, issued in Spanish

PRESS RELEASE from CNE
July 23, 2024

A saving of approximately $7.8 billion for the country's renewable generating park has generated the elimination of type B compensation of the green tax on polluting gas emissions, carried out by the National Energy Commission (CNE), through Exempt Resolution No. 149, issued in April of last year, whose legality was endorsed by an opinion of the Comptroller General of the Republic, released on July 19.

Said administrative act of the CNE was one of the first measures materialized in the Initial Agenda for the Second Period of the Energy Transition, of the Ministry of Energy, which left without effect Exempt Resolution No. 52, of January 2018, which incorporated the so-called type B compensation in Exempt Resolution No. 659 of 2017, which implements article 8 of Law No. 20,780.

The objectives of this adjustment to the green tax compensation system, which in the 2024 balance meant a 98.9% reduction in the total value of compensations paid by all generators compared to the previous balance, would be to advance the decarbonization of the matrix electricity, in addition to mitigating the risks of renewable energy suppliers, by reducing the lateral payments they incur, which also seeks to generate a positive impact on clients, mainly free, if their contracts allow the reduction of these costs.

Opinion

The opinion of the Comptroller General of the Republic responded to the request of a group of generating companies regarding the legality of Exempt Resolution No. 149, in which type B compensation of the green tax was eliminated.

In said opinion, the Comptroller's Office indicates, in summary, that the methodology for calculating the green tax is sufficiently founded on the reasons of merit established in detail by the aforementioned Exempt Resolution No. 149. Among these reasons, the controlling body refers to the verification of an increase in the value of compensations whose amounts exceeded those strictly necessary to avoid operational losses during the annual year, as well as the need to place the majority of the tax burden on those responsible. of emissions, and with the objective of calculating the aforementioned compensation in an annual time window, the same periodicity with which the tax regulated in the aforementioned article 8 of Law No. 20,780 is determined.

Likewise, the statement maintains that “the implementation of “compensation B” does not constitute a declaratory or creative act of rights that could have been incorporated into the assets of its recipients and, on the other hand, that there is no acquired right to the immutability of the norms nor to the maintenance of a certain regime indefinitely that cannot be modified in the exercise of the discretion of the competent authority.”