Fiscal incentives impact for RETs investments in Colombia

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an assessment of the fiscal incentives, stated in Law 1715/2014, to promote Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in Colombia. The assessment focuses on the impacts of incentives over both Levelized Cost of Electricity and present value of Income Tax . In order to quantify these financial impacts, this study has adapted traditional formulations following the approach of Reichelstein and Yorston (2013). In particular, the model developed focus on the impacts of Special Tax Deduction (STD), accelerated depreciation (AD), and exemptions of Value-Added Tax (VAT) and Custom Tariffs (CT) on electrical and mechanical equipment. VAT and CT are considered in both investment and fixed operation and maintenance costs, whereas AD and STD are incentives that significantly affect and under specific conditions imposed by such a Law. These incentives were recently stated in The Law 1715/2014 that promotes the development and integration of RETs in Colombia. To quantitatively explore the impacts of The Law, and of a large-scale solar photovoltaic 150 MW power plant are evaluated. Six scenarios combined with three different levels of income perceived by an investment firm are carefully evaluated. Numerical results show reductions between 16% and 33%, and reductions between 1% and 50% when incentives are applied.

KEYWORDS:

• Custom tariffs
• depreciation
• fiscal incentives
• income tax
• levelized cost of electricity
• large-scale solar photovoltaic
• special tax deduction
• tax exemption
• value-added tax

5. Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the support offered by Colciencias and UPME under contract 542-2014 (convocatoria # 643 de 2014) as well as the support of University of Antioquia (Estrategia de Sostenibilidad 2017–2018).