Federal government wants to charge R$29 billion in environmental fines

Agency Brazil The government will insist on pursuing legal action to collect R$ 29,1 billion in environmental fines. This new stance results from changes to two legal opinions from the Attorney General's Office (AGU), which address the statute of limitations for collecting these penalties.

When the statute of limitations expires, the Federal Government loses the right to collect fines levied by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama). Under the new interpretation, the Attorney General's Office (AGU) now argues that the counting of the time limit for this statute of limitations is interrupted during certain investigations, such as inspections and the preparation of reports. In practice, the new interpretation extends the time the government has to prosecute offenders.

Another shift in understanding concerns the annulment of more than 45 infraction notices issued by environmental inspectors, totaling R$ 18 billion. During the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro, Ibama decided to annul the imposed penalties, considering the notification of offenders by public notice to be an irregularity. Now, the Attorney General's Office (AGU) argues that notifications by public notice are legitimate, and therefore, the collection of fines should proceed.

Together, the two changes reverse the potential expiration of 183 infraction notices, totaling R$ 29,1 billion in environmental fines, according to a survey conducted by the Specialized Federal Prosecutor's Office at Ibama, a unit of the Attorney General's Office that provides consulting services to the environmental agency.

The new legal opinions were approved by the Attorney General of the Union, Jorge Messias. "Environmental infractions cannot be financially rewarded," said the Attorney General in a statement released by the AGU (Attorney General's Office). The agency also stated, in a note, that the measure will provide "legal certainty for the continued collection" of environmental fines.

The change in understanding also passed through the scrutiny of the Federal Attorney General Adriana Maia Venturini and the Legal Advisory Office of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, with the assistance of the National Prosecutor's Office for Climate and Environmental Defense.

In one of his first acts after taking office, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree reversing the annulment of penalties that had been invalidated by Ibama. In the same decree, he reversed changes that had been made by the previous government to the administrative processes dealing with environmental fines.