THE preview of official inflation for January calculated by the Broad National Consumer Price Index 15 (IPCA-15) was 0.11%. The data was released this Friday (24) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and represents the lowest monthly value since July 2023, when there was negative inflation (-0.07).
The rate is also the lowest for the month of January in the entire Real plan, which began in 1994. IBGE researchers identified that the cost of living in the month was driven up by items linked to the food and beverage groups (1.06 %) and transport (1.01%).
However, the item that had the greatest impact on the IPCA-15 individually was the electricity bill, which dropped 15.46%, helping to contain inflation. This variation meant a decrease of 0.6 percentage points in the IPCA-15.
Itaipu Bonuses
The explanation for this relief in the cost of electricity bills is the so-called Itaipu Bonus, which benefited more than 78.3 million consumers in January. This represents 97% of the total residential and rural units in the country as of December 31, 2023.
These electricity company customers receive discounts on their energy tariffs on their bill this month.
In total, the value of the discount reaches R$1.3 billion. This money represents the positive balance in Itaipu’s Electricity Trading Account, the Itaipu Account. This money is raised by Itaipu Binacional, which generates energy from the plant located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, along the Paraná River.
Residential and rural Brazilian consumers who consumed less than 350 kilowatt-hours (kWh) in at least one month of 2023 receive this prorated money in the form of discounts.
Calculation
The Itaipu Bonus Tariff for 2023 was approved by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) with the value of R$0.011648844 per kWh.
To understand how much they will receive, the consumer must multiply the value of the Bonus Tariff by the amount in kWh informed on the energy bill in each month of 2023 in which consumption was less than 350 kWh – the value of the bonus for the consumer will be the sum of these monthly results.
For example, if a family consumed exactly 100 kWh per month in the 12 months of the year, the calculation will be R$ 0.011648844 (bonus tariff) x 100 (monthly consumption in kWh) x 12 (months), totaling R$ 13, 98.
As the average consumption in 2023 among the 78.3 million benefited units was 119 kWh per month, a family with this consumption would receive a bonus of R$16.66.
Account discrimination
To find out if they benefited, the consumer needs to look at the electricity bill issued by the distributors. It is detailed in the “invoice items” tab, such as “Itaipu bonus art.21, Law no. 10438/02”. In the same field, you can check exactly the amount of the rebate.
The Brazilian general director of Itaipu, Enio Verri, comments that the bill relief is an additional instrument to combat inflation. “The calculation of electrical energy is included in the basic inflation basket, that is, when we lower the value of electrical energy, inflation also drops, and this helps the entire country”, he says.
Approval
The Itaipu account has shown positive results since 2018. The distribution of the balance to consumers is a determination of Decree 11,027/2022.
The distribution of the balance of R$1.3 billion was approved on November 26, 2024 by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) and announced by the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME).
The decision is a way of distributing state-owned profits directly to society.
The Empresa Brasileira de Participações em Energia Nuclear e Binacional SA (ENBPar) is responsible for managing the Itaipu Account and is responsible for passing on the bonus amount to the distributors of the National Interconnected System, so that they can credit it to consumers’ invoices.
