The Court of Justice of the State of Rio de Janeiro has decided to suspend an injunction that allowed the cutting off of electricity in the state for people in arrears. From now on, companies are prohibited from cutting off electricity supplies for the next 90 days.
Claudio de Mello Tavares, the president of the Court, made the decision as a way to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus. Thus, an injunction that restricted the prohibition of cuts to essential services was suspended. The list was in Resolution No. 878/2020 of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), dated March 24, 2020. According to the new law, the cutting of essential services such as water supply and sewage treatment, gas and electricity was prevented, as per its article 2.
According to the president of the Court, the coronavirus pandemic is an unusual situation: “the exceptional nature of the situation has led to a decline in production and, consequently, a compromise in workers' income, as most companies no longer have revenue and others, given their specificities, such as leisure and tourism, are at a standstill”, reported Tavares.
The state court decided to overturn the injunction that allowed the cutting of electricity in the state and the new measure will be valid for 90 days
The request for suspension of the injunction originated from the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro. The assembly approved a law that prohibits any type of power outage due to non-payment.
According to Tavares, it is difficult to implement Aneel's resolution, especially for low-income people. Therefore, the State Legislative Branch has the ability to legislate on the issue.
The judge also pointed out that this decision is not intended to “encourage default”. “After all, we know that the concessionaire needs to raise funds to provide the community with an adequate, safe and efficient service. However, this is a very exceptional situation that, given its very nature, needs to be treated differently”, he said.
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