Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) called the 27 governors to a face-to-face meeting this Tuesday (7th) with the aim of debating the complementary bill that creates a limit of 17% to 18% for the ICMS on items such as fuel and energy.
The meeting will take place after President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) proposes, this Monday (6), to use Union resources to compensate states that zero ICMS rates on diesel and cooking gas by the end of the year. State Chief Executives viewed with suspicion and criticized the proposal presented by the federal government.
The meeting with the governors is scheduled to take place on Tuesday night, in the Senate. States now charge rates of 12% to 25% on diesel and were already trying to negotiate changes to the bill that is in the Senate. The government’s suggestion to make up for losses was criticized by governors for being only partial.
The government’s proposal puts pressure on managers by creating the narrative that the Union is willing to do its part to reduce the impact of high fuel prices and that, with that, it is up to the states to also contribute.
According to Bolsonaro’s announcement, the federal government is willing to replace the loss of revenue that corresponds to the application of the ICMS rate of up to 17% on diesel, as provided for in the project.
Governors heard by Sheet complain that most of them charge more than 17% of the fuel tax and, even with the compensation provided, they would have large losses.
In addition, they say that the compensation was not detailed and is conditional, first, on the approval of the bill in the Senate, and, later, on the approval of a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that has not yet been presented by the federal government. Governors say that, therefore, there is still no guarantee of compensation.
Bolsonaro’s idea is that the PEC authorizes spending on the transfer to stay outside the spending ceiling, the rule that limits the advance of expenses to inflation. The text must be presented by a parliamentarian, that is, without an explicit fingerprint from the government when submitting the proposal.
The articulation for this PEC was anticipated by the Sheet.​
The announced PEC emerged as an alternative to the public calamity decree, which was once again defended by the political wing of the government, but faced resistance from technicians in the economic area.
During the announcement of the proposal, the Senate president stated that he expected “very soon” a definition regarding the report of the bill that sets the fuel rate at 17%, reported by Senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho (MDB-PE).
“What is more important, which is to favor the final consumer in relation to the very serious problem that we have today, which is the excessive price that we have today at the fuel pump”, said Pacheco.
The senator did not plan to participate in the announcement, but gave in to a request from Bolsonaro. The president of the Senate wanted to avoid committing himself to the proposal publicly since he will still talk to the governors and the Senate is the Legislative House that usually represents the interests of the federative entities.
During the press conference, Bolsonaro demanded that the states support the suggestion. “We have zeroed PIS / Cofins since last year and, as long as the governors understand that they can also zero ICMS, we, the federal government, will reimburse the governors for what they will not collect”, he said.
This Monday, the president announced the exemption of federal taxes also on gasoline and ethanol. According to the president, the PIS/Cofins and Cide rates on both items will be zeroed.
Three months earlier, the government had already zeroed the PIS and Cofins rates, two federal taxes, on diesel and cooking gas by December 2022.
The government did not detail the impact of each of the announced measures. Questioned by journalists, Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) took the floor again and said that the total cost should be above R$25 billion and below R$50 billion.
Government sources, in turn, claim that the cost should be close to R$50 billion.
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