Category Archives: Bulletin

In accordance with the ruling issued by the Constitutional Court declaring the unconstitutionality of the executive decree that established the state of emergency throughout the national territory, the Tax and Customs Authorities have lifted the suspension of terms and conditions, as established below:

1. The Internal Revenue Service, through Regulation NAC-DGERCGC21-00000001 issued on January 3, 2021, repealed the Regulation NAC-DGERCGC20-00000081 issued on December 23, 2020, by which the terms and deadlines of all administrative processes and the statute of limitations for collecting debts were suspended until January 17, 2021.

2. The National Customs Service of Ecuador, through Regulation SENAE-SENAE-2021-0001-RE, issued on January 3, 2021, canceled the suspension of terms and deadlines of all tax administrative processes and the statute of limitations for collecting debts until January 20, 2021, ordered by Regulation SENAE-SENAE-2020-0062-RE, issued on December 22, 2020.

3. Although when this bulletin was prepared, these regulations have not been published in the Official Gazette, the authorities of the Tax and Customs Authorities have established that the terms counted in calendar days will run as of January 3 and the terms counted in working days will run as of January 4, 2021.

The Law for the Rationalization, Reuse, and Reduction of Single-Use Plastics in Commerce (the “Single-Use Plastics Law”) was published on December 21, 2020. The main topics of the Law are the following:

The purpose of the Single-Use Plastics Law is to regulate the generation of plastic waste, the progressive reduction of single-use plastics through responsible consumption, reuse, recycling, and possible replacement by packaging made from recycled or biodegradable material.

2. Guiding Principles

The environmental principles for the interpretation of the Law are the following:

2.1 Comprehensive responsibility

2.2 Environmental Best Practices

2.3 Sustainable Development

2.4 Polluter pays

2.5 Prevention

2.6 In dubio pro natura

3. Progressive reduction of single-use plastic

The Single-Use Plastics Act provides for the progressive reduction of single-use plastics from the time it comes into effect:

Within 12 months, it is forbidden to:

1) Merchandise and use of single-use plastic bags and containers for food and beverage in national parks, protected areas, beaches

2) Use of single-use plastic bags or wrappers for the delivery of printed advertising, newspapers and magazines

3) Manufacture and import for internal consumption, distribution, delivery, and use of single-use plastic sorbets.

Within 24 months, it is forbidden to:

1) Manufacture and import for internal consumption, distribution, and use of plastic bags that do not contain the minimum percentage of post-consumer recycled material

2) Manufacture and import for internal consumption of bags and single-use articles that include additives that catalyze such materials’ fragmentation into microplastics.

(3) Manufacture and import for domestic consumption, distribution, and use of containers or packaging made of polystyrene, which does not contain the minimum percentage of post-consumer recycled material

Within 36 months, it is forbidden to:

1) Manufacture and import for internal consumption, distribution and use any modality of bags, plastic wrappers of a single whose manufacture does not contain the percentage of recycled raw material

2) Manufacture and import for domestic consumption, distribution and use of plastic plates, cups, and other single-use food and beverage utensils and tableware that are not recyclable or reusable and whose manufacture does not contain the percentage of recycled raw material.

4. Exception for the use of single-use plastics

Plastic bags and packaging that constitute the primary packaging of food in bulk or of animal origin are excluded from the above prohibitions. Also excluded from the standard are single-use bags and packaging related to cleaning, hygiene, health, or medical.

5) Minimum component

All bags, containers, and plastic products that are not mentioned in the prohibitions must comply with minimum characteristics determined by the Ministry of Environment in conjunction with the Ministry of Production and Foreign Trade. These characteristics will contemplate the minimum percentages of post-consumer recycled material. The percentages previously described will be reached progressively and within the deadlines outlined in this Law.

6. Registration

The Ministry of Environment shall create a national public registry of importers and producers of plastic, single-use plastic products. The Registry shall provide statistical information regarding the import, manufacture, distribution and consumption of these products.

7. Labelling

All plastic articles for consumption will have a label printed on their packaging recommending how to reuse and recycle them following the National Technical Standard

8) National Plastic Waste Reduction Plan

The Ministry of the Environment has 90 days to prepare the National Plan for the Reduction of Plastic Waste. This plan will establish the objectives, goals, strategies, and incentives to reduce plastic waste.

9. Infractions and sanctions

Some of the main infractions and sanctions are the following:

It is considered a severe infraction:

a) Recidivism by producers, importers, and marketers in the non-compliance with the prohibitions for reducing single-use plastic products.

It is considered a serious infraction:

b) Non-compliance by producers, importers, and marketers in the reduction of single-use plastic products.

c) The use of single-use plastics in prohibited areas.

The sanction will depend on the offender’s economic capacity according to the Organic Code of the Environment.

It will be a pleasure for Corral Rosales to assist you in adapting and fulfilling the present Law.

The Reformatory Organic Law of the Organic Code of the Judicial Function, published in the Supplement to Official Gazette No. 345 of December 8, 2020, regulated the recess and vacation periods of the Judicial Function.

By virtue of this reform, the judiciary servants of Ecuador will enjoy their annual vacations in two fifteen-day periods each:

During these periods, the Judiciary goes into recess, and, therefore, the deadlines and terms within any legal proceedings in progress are suspended.

Please note that general and specialized criminal courts, tribunals and chambers, as well as courts for family, women, children and adolescents will not be subject to these recesses.

During the time of the vacancy, actions for jurisdictional guarantees may be filed, and after a draw these will be heard by those judges who continue working during this time.

Exceptionally, in cases of fortuitous event or force majeure, the Judiciary Council may change the dates of these recesses.

In order to guarantee permanent services to the citizens, the Judiciary Council will coordinate the annual vacations system with the rest of the auxiliary and autonomous bodies of the Judiciary.

The Plenary of the Judiciary Council determined, by Resolution 141- 2020 issued on December 14, 2020,  that the annual vacations for judiciary servants nation-wide and the Judicial Function recess for 2020 will be applied in accordance with the above-mentioned reform. Consequently, there will be a judicial recess from December 23, 2020 to January 6, 2021. Therefore, any the hearings and proceedings that were scheduled within these dates will be rescheduled.

The Director of the Judiciary Council shall issue the resolution corresponding to the vacation system for the administrative servants of the Judiciary, in coordination with its other autonomous and auxiliary bodies.

By Executive Decree 1190 issued on November 17, 2020, the President of the Republic published the Regulations for Public-Private Associations (“Regulations“).

Delegated management contract: agreement by which the rights and obligations of the delegating entity and a private company are determinate in relation to the execution of a public project whose management is delegated. The Public-Private Partnership (“PPP“) is a form of indirect management of public activities whereby, through a long-term delegated management contract, a private manager is entrusted with the development or management of infrastructure or public services.  The private manager assumes the risk and responsibility during the term of the contract, its consideration is linked to the performance of the project.

Inter-institutional Committee of Public-Private Partnerships (“Committee“). It is responsible for issuing policies, technical regulation and direction in the delegated management of public projects and will be presided over the head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Committee, among other competencies, shall: define the sectors in which the creation of a PPP will be promoted through the approval of the PPP Project Program; determine the policies and guidelines for the application of the benefits provided in the PPP Law; regulate technical aspects of a project through the issuance of technical guides; keep public information regarding PPP projects; award all or part of the tax benefits provided in the PPP Law; promote the participation of the financial sector, national and international, in the financial structuring of the projects.

Other competences of the Committee: to approve projects proposed by a delegating entity; to establish the projects that can be delegated to a private manager for the use of the existing infrastructure; to establish institutional coordination mechanisms.

Regime of delegated management contracts and PPP projects

Regarding public projects, it defines services of general interest as public services related to strategic sectors and the provision of goods under the jurisdiction of a public administration. A public project managed through a PPP may consist of planning and design, construction, equipment, operation and maintenance of a new infrastructure work for the provision of a service of general interest; planning and design, rehabilitation or improvement, equipment, operation and maintenance of an existing infrastructure work for the provision of a service of general interest; a combination of the two previous ones; all kinds of productive activities, research and development.

Self-financed projects: those whose income comes from the price paid by the final users; and Projects with public financing, those that require the participation of public investment. The projects will distribute the risks between the public and private sectors; preferably they will be integral, trying to make the private manager in charge of the execution of the project. The results of the projects will be evaluated through specific indicators.

Public projects of private initiative: By public invitation or by their own initiative, private companies may propose to the Administration the execution by delegated project management. The delegating entities will determine the public interest of the project within a maximum term of six months. Once the private initiative project has been incorporated into the PPP Project Program, the private proponent will have a term of six months to prepare the feasibility study. The private proponent will intervene on equal terms with the other interested parties, with the only exception of a bonus of up to ten percentage points in the evaluation of its offer.  He will not have the right to match or improve the offer of the best qualified bidder.

Participants in a PPP project: the delegating entities will be the public administrations that own the competence that will be delegated, public companies are not considered delegating entities; the private manager may be a corporation constituted according to Ecuadorian legislation, with a specific purpose to attend the public project. The private manager may adopt another authorized figure in the legal system according to the specifications of the application.

Economic-financial terms: the private manager, as consideration for the activities assumed, may receive contributions from the public budget, payments made by the final users, or a combination of both. The income of the PPP project will be used to cover the investment and operating costs and expenses of the PPP project and the remuneration of the private manager. When the private manager does not have a direct relationship with the users or beneficiaries of the PPP project, the public administrations may constitute a trust business to guarantee the respective payments. In its relationship with third parties that finance the PPP project, the private manager will have the necessary autonomy and sufficiency to provide the guarantees required on the estate and rights of the delegated management contract that are their exclusive property, without the need for prior authorization of the entity, except in cases where their acts or contracts may imply that the third party is able to suspend public service or affect service levels.

PPP project cycle and administrative procedure

The objectives to be achieved must be established in the planning and project selection stage. It is up to the delegating entity to establish problems, effects, causes and objectives to identify the needs to be satisfied.  Preliminary evaluation of sustainability and fiscal risks: it oversees the Sustainability and Fiscal Risks Unit of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Committee should determine the convenience of the PPP modality. With the opinion of sustainability, the delegating entity will submit to the Committee’s consideration its request for the granting of tax benefits and incentives in accordance with the PPP Law. As part of the project cycle, public bidding and contracting are regulated. Any legal entity, national or foreign, may participate in the contests for the selection of the private manager. The offers will be evaluated by a contracting committee.