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Paraguay | New regulatory framework to promote energy efficiency

10-12-2024 | Noticias-en

Recently, the Executive Branch instructed the creation of the National Energy Efficiency Labeling Program (the program) and established the application of minimum energy performance standards on selected products.

The programme will aim to establish concrete actions for the actors involved in the regulation and supervision of product labelling. To achieve this, a clear and detailed roadmap will be developed that includes:

Clear implementation deadlines.
Progressive incorporation of minimum energy performance standards, known as Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS)
Achievable goals and periodic evaluation mechanisms to measure their impact and effectiveness.

Scope

The program will cover household electrical appliances, as defined in the “table of household appliance consumption” published by the National Electricity Administration (ANDE). This will allow prioritizing those products that have the greatest impact on the country’s energy consumption.

Implementation

The National Committee on Energy Efficiency (the committee) must identify the electrical appliances for domestic use with the highest consumption and coordinate with the competent institutions the preparation, development and implementation of the necessary technical regulations, within a maximum period of two years from its selection.

In the first stage of the program implementation, the committee will select three household electrical appliances with the highest consumption.

Specific objective

The information contained in the energy efficiency labels of household appliances manufactured, imported and marketed in the country must comply with the corresponding Paraguayan technical standards. In addition, the selected products to be required from the second year of their mandatory implementation in the local market must contemplate the application of the minimum energy performance standards or MEPS.

Responsibility and execution

The office of the Vice Ministry of Mines and Energy, which is part of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications, will be responsible for implementing and monitoring the program. In addition, the development of conformity assessment bodies will be encouraged to advance the process of product certification.

The program not only seeks to reduce energy costs in homes and businesses, but also to strengthen the country’s competitiveness and contribute to the sustainable development of its economic activities. This initiative positions Paraguay as a benchmark in the adoption of responsible and sustainable measures in energy matters.

Paraguay | MTESS establishes new provisions for occupational health and safety professionals

07-05-2024 | Noticias-en

A resolution of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security (No. 219/2024) approves the procedure for granting the digital card and registration of professionals who work in the field of Health and Safety at Work (SST), being the Vice Ministry of Labor through the Directorate of Occupational Health and Safety (DSSO), responsible for evaluating, observing, notifying, recognizing and approving records and cards.

The regulation, detailed in an attached annex, establishes criteria, categories, requirements, procedures and functions for OSH professionals, as well as the implementation of a digital system to manage this registry.

The regulation defines three categories of OSH professionals:

A (Upper)
B (Intermediate)
C (Basic)

Each category has specific requirements in terms of educational background, work experience, and additional certifications.

In addition, the procedure for obtaining the digital card is established, which will be carried out through the DSSO – RISO computer program (within the Occupational Safety Information Registration System) and will be valid for 5 years.

Regarding the functions of the professionals registered in each category, specific tasks are detailed, ranging from promoting the prevention of occupational risks to carrying out risk assessments and planning preventive actions.

Responsibilities are also established, such as informing the competent authorities about occupational accidents and occupational diseases of which workers are victims, which cause more than three days of disability in the afternoons, and responding to administrative summaries before the Administrative Labor Authority, in case of non-compliance with their functions or attributing functions that do not correspond to them.

Paraguay | The Ministry of Labor implements a 50% reduction in fines imposed on employers

28-11-2023 | Noticias-en

The fines that are reducible are those imposed by:

Non-compliance with employer registration in the Employer Workers’ Registry.
Failure to submit labor forms.
Lack of communication of entry and exit of workers.
Lack of communication of permits and vacations granted.
Lack of communication of reprimands, warnings and suspensions of workers,
Lack of communication of work accidents, risks and occupational diseases.
Balances due to late payments of installment fines, as long as the request for installment of the fine is prior to the date of the decree.

For the first 6 fines mentioned, employers will have the fine divided into up to ten (10) installments of equal value, but a minimum initial delivery of twenty percent (20%) of the entire reduced fine must be made.

Fines that were divided prior to this decree may only benefit from the reduction by paying the entire reduced fine. If this is not a possibility for the employer, they will have to continue complying with the payment of the installments.

For more information contact:

Carla Arellano | Counselor Ferrere | carellano@ferrere.com

Paraguay | New Carbon Credit Law is promulgated

24-10-2023 | Noticias-en

On October 12, 2023, the President of the Republic of Paraguay signed and promulgated Law 7190/2023 on Carbon Credits. The new regulations provide the country with a specific regulatory framework for the development of projects that generate carbon credits for their commercialization in international markets, whether mandatory or voluntary.

Among other provisions, the new law designates the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (MADES) as the enforcement authority and creates the national Carbon Credit Registry, which will seek to provide order and transparency to the local market and avoid double accounting of emissions reductions. . Likewise, the standard contemplates measures to safeguard compliance with Paraguay’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), including the obligation to retain between 3 and 10% of the carbon credits generated by each project, and measures designed to promote knowledge transfer to Paraguayan professionals and technicians. In order to encourage national and foreign investment in local projects, the law grants certain legal protections to properties destined for projects under development, providing legal clarity to the ownership and transferability of carbon credits, and exonerating the Value Added Tax. (VAT) the transfer of these.

MADES, as the designated enforcement authority, is now tasked with regulating and implementing the specific procedures required in the new law and ensuring compliance therewith.

Paraguay, with its 16 million hectares of forests, with the accelerated increase in its forest plantations, and with its vast availability of clean and renewable hydroelectric energy, has enormous potential for the international carbon credit market, whose global value in In 2023 it is estimated at about 1.2 trillion dollars, an amount that is estimated could double in the next 5 years.

FERRERE advises local and foreign clients, including landowners, project developers, investors, specialized funds, and end buyers, in the most significant transactions in the carbon credit market in Paraguay.

For more information contact:

Carla Arellano | Counselor Ferrere | carellano@ferrere.com

Paraguay | Advances in legislation and development of anti-corruption public policies stand out

13-04-2022 | Noticias-en

The Shadow Report to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (“UNCAC”) published by the Non-Governmental Organization “Seeds for Democracy” towards the end of 2021 highlighted important advances in legislation and the development of anti-corruption public policies by the State Paraguayan between the years 2018 and 2021.

Thus, the report considered that Paraguay is inevitably in a process of strengthening public management policies that are really open and useful for citizens, pointing out as positive aspects:

The regulatory adaptation related to the promotion of technologies for the fight against corruption through the development of open government action plans, with the participation of the State, civil society and the private sector.
The adoption of an open contracting policy by the National Directorate of Public Procurement (DNCP), when reporting on its portal the adoption of said standard for the publication of data, making available to interested parties a series of data related to suppliers of the State and the respective award amounts in public contracts, allowing more effective citizen control.
The promulgation in 2019 of the package of 10 laws within the framework of the government’s strategy to approve the evaluations of compliance with the 40 Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), with which several of the mandates were legislatively fulfilled. of Chapter V of the UNCAC; Y
The existence of important advances with the latest modifications incorporated into the Political Financing Law, since the new legislation constitutes a challenge in terms of public policies to strengthen political parties, reduce asymmetries and prevent the entry of money of illicit origin into the electoral processes.