The sudden change of heart by the Senate president, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), regarding the approval of Bill 278/2026 should cause the debate about a special regime for data centers (Redata) to revert to Bill 2338/2023, which creates the legal framework for Artificial Intelligence.
The rapporteur for both matters, Deputy Aguinaldo Ribeiro (PP-PB), said that in April he should present a new schedule for the AI bill. At the end of last year, Aguinaldo reached an agreement with the government to condense the two proposals — the Redata and the legal framework for AI — into a single text, but did not reach an understanding with the Presidential Palace on other points of the project, such as copyright. Given the expiration date of the Provisional Measure that created Redata, the decision was to consider the matters separately.
The government was confident that Redata would be approved by senators on Wednesday (February 25th), through PL 278/2026, but Alcolumbre ended the session without scheduling the text for debate. The decision extinguished Redata, since the project would need to be sanctioned during the validity of MP 1318/2025.
The motivation is unclear, even to the Executive branch. It is considered certain, however, that it is a political factor — sources told JOTA that a series of issues, including the strained relationship with Lula after the nomination of Jorge Messias to the Supreme Court and the progress of the investigations into Banco Master, may have contributed to Alcolumbre's dissatisfaction.
Until yesterday's turnaround, there was skepticism among parliamentarians about the chances of approving a legal framework to regulate Artificial Intelligence — the subject is sensitive, and the government is unwilling to abandon controversial issues, such as the remuneration of copyright, within the scope of the matter. The return of Redata may restore priority for the AI text to move forward.
Budgetary Dilemma
Meetings took place late into the night on the Esplanade of Ministries to discuss ways to save Redata this year. As of now, no decision has been made on which path to follow.
The advancement of a bill — such as the discussion of Redata in the AI Bill — can be maintained, but it would require a directive through a supplementary bill (PLP) to amend the current Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) to allow for new tax exemptions.
Redata is tied to a financial impact of R$5.20 billion on public coffers in 2026, R$1 billion in 2027, and R$1.05 billion in 2028. One understanding is that, without the provisional measure, the estimates ceased to exist, making it impossible to approve the benefit.
Another problem lies in the recently approved Complementary Law 224/2026, which provides for the reduction of tax benefits by 10%. In addition to reducing existing incentives, the rule makes the approval of new tax waivers more stringent.
The legal interpretation that would validate the Redata program in the current situation is similar to what the Civil House will formulate for President Lula to approve the supplementary bill that establishes the reduction in tax rates foreseen in Presiq (PLP 14/2026), a program aimed at the chemical industry. The process was completed this Wednesday with the Senate's approval.
Some within the Executive branch believe that the future technical basis for the approval of the Presiq (Brazilian government's special regime for data processing) could be used by the government to send a supplementary bill to address the budgetary aspects of the Redata (Brazilian data processing program). Within the government, there is also an evaluation of the possibility of recreating the data center initiative within a supplementary bill as a way to expedite the process, should the special regime encounter difficulties with the AI bill.
From a tax perspective, Provisional Measure 1318/2025 and Bill 278/2026 stipulated that PIS/Cofins, PIS/Cofins on imports, IPI, and Import Tax would not apply to eligible companies. This wording would be valid until the end of 2026, as the tax reform foresees the elimination of PIS/Cofins and the reduction to zero of IPI, with the exception of products from the Manaus Free Trade Zone, starting next year.
For this reason, the proposal is seen as an "anticipation" of the tax reform. In practice, it brings forward the non-incidence of taxes that will cease to exist in 2027. From that date, however, the Contribution on Goods and Services (CBS) will be charged.
Energy Dilemma
The fact is that the scenario in which the tax regime for data centers is once again being debated within the AI bill gives more space — and perhaps strength — to the demands of the energy sector, which has tried to introduce changes to the Redata bill in recent days.
There are calls for greater flexibility regarding the energy sources used as conditions for joining the special regime — such as the use of natural gas-fired power plants and nuclear power plants, which are not met with resistance from the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Civil House.
But other debates are likely to spill over into the AI bill, such as new criteria for self-production to allow for greater tariff benefits in supplying energy through data centers, dilution of storage system costs between transmission and distribution segments, and even a solution for the energy curtailment portion.
Source: www.jota.info