Stations now receive gasoline with federal tax rebates

While states are still trying to reverse the ICMS cut in court, gas stations are already starting to receive gasoline with a discount on the portion of federal taxes, which were zeroed by the same law that established a ceiling for the state tax rate.

The discount is still gradual, since the transfer depends on the distributors’ stocks, but the government is negotiating with the sector an alternative to speed up the cuts in fuel prices.

According to the resale sector, stations in Rio de Janeiro, Paraná and Minas Gerais, for example, already receive cheaper gasoline from distributors. The government zeroed the PIS/Cofins and Cide rates, which amounted to R$ 0.69 per litre, or 9.3% of the record price reached by the fuel last week.

“Distributors, in general, began to gradually transfer to stations the zeroed rates in federal taxes”, said, in a note, Paranapetro, which represents the retail fuel trade in Paraná.

Owner of a network of gas stations in Rio, businesswoman Maria Aparecida Siuffo stated that she has already noticed a drop in the value of her orders. “Companies are gradually passing PIS and Cofins. They are not finished yet.”

In a hearing at the Chamber of Deputies this Tuesday (28), the Minister of Mines and Energy, Adolfo Sachsida, said that he is in contact with the companies and the ANP (National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels) to seek a solution to expedite transfers.

The proposal is to allow the consigned sale of fuel from refineries to distributors. In this model, distribution companies pick up products from refineries, but invoices are only issued after tax cuts.

Thus, all the stock that enters the distributors would already have the tax cut discount. Without this measure, the expectation of the sector is that the transfer will only reach the stations in full within a period of 10 to 15 days.

The consignment sale proposal was presented by the distributors themselves to the government, in view of the fear that the delay in spawning the stocks would generate questions and pressure to speed up the transfer even with losses, which occurred during the period of the 2018 truck drivers’ strike.

The tax cut sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro last Friday (24) mainly affects gasoline. For diesel, federal taxes were already zero and ICMS, below the ceiling in most states.

With just the ICMS ceiling on gasoline, the average cut in the country will be R$ 0.657 per liter, according to calculations by consultant Dietmar Schupp. With the two taxes, Sachsida expects an average reduction of 21% in the final price.

Dissatisfied with the federal government’s interference in their tax policies, 11 states and the Federal District went to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to try to suspend the validity of the ICMS ceiling law. This Tuesday, they presented a conciliation proposal, which should be evaluated by the government within 24 hours.

On Monday (27), however, the governments of São Paulo and Goiás decided to anticipate a cut in the state tax. In São Paulo, the expectation is that the price of gasoline will fall by R$ 0.48 per liter at the pump. In Goiás, the drop should be R$ 0.85 per liter.

The difference is explained by the old rates. São Paulo is among the states with the lowest tax burden on fuel and charged 25% on gasoline. In Goiás, the rate was 30%.

There are still doubts, however, about the maintenance of the freezing of reference prices for the calculation of ICMS, which expires this Thursday (30). The tax is calculated on an estimate made by the states at the gas stations, known as PMPF (weighted average price to the final consumer).

Currently, ICMS is levied on the September PMPF, when gasoline cost, on average in the country, R$ 6.078 per liter. The update of this value to the current price (average of R$ 7,390 per liter), will swallow at least part of the tax cuts approved by Congress.