New ICMS rate raises gas cylinder price by up to R$ 7.51

The new ICMS rate for cooking gas, defined by the states on Friday (23), will raise the price of a 13-kilogram cylinder by up to R$ 7.51, a product that has a great weight in the budget of families with less income.

The state with the highest increase is Rio de Janeiro, where the rate will increase by 85% after the adoption of the new values. In 11 other states and in the Federal District, the increase will exceed R$ 5 per cylinder, which today costs, on average, R$ 108.73.

The definition of a single national rate was determined by law approved by the National Congress in March, reviewing the tax policy on fuels in the country. In addition to establishing a national value, the law determines that ICMS will be charged in Reais per liter or kilo, depending on the product.

On Friday, Confaz (National Council for Finance Policy) defined that the unified rate for cooking gas will be R$ 1.2571 per kilo, higher than the highest rate currently charged, R$ 1.2267, in Acre.

Thus, all states will have price increases. On the national average, the increase will be R$ 4.16 per 13-kilogram cylinder, equivalent to 4% of the final price of the product. The final percentage increase, however, will depend on other price components when the ICMS increase takes effect.

With the higher rate, the collection of the states and the Federal District from the sale of 13-kilogram cylinders will rise by almost 40%, or R$ 1.8 billion, according to accounts from Sindigás (Sindicato das Empresas Distribuidoras de LPG (liquefied petroleum gas ).

Considering the tax increase also on the product sold in other containers or in bulk, the additional collection will be R$ 2.6 billion,

The president of Sindigás, Sergio Bandeira de Melo, says that the companies are in favor of tax simplification, but consider it “unacceptable and unbelievable, from the point of view of the essentiality of the LPG, that the federative units have chosen to adopt a value above the highest value current national.

The smallest increase will be in Acre, of R$ 0.40 per cylinder. Rio, Mato Grosso do Sul, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul, Federal District, Goiás, Sergipe, São Paulo, Tocantins. Amapá, Rondônia, Roraima and Maranhão will increase by more than R$ 5 per cylinder.

The escalation in the price of the cylinder after the most critical period of the pandemic has brought down sales of the product in the last two years, even with the distribution of aid for the purchase of the product by low-income families.

Between January and November 2022, 4.6 million tons of gas were sold in 13-kilogram cylinders, a volume 3.1% lower than that registered in 2021, when the market had already experienced a 3.9% drop in sales in the same year. time course.

On Friday, Confaz also defined the unified ICMS rate on diesel, which will be R$ 0.9456 per liter. Also in this case, the decision will have an impact on the final price of the product, since the average rate today is R$ 0.620 per liter.

Considering the current average price of S-10 diesel, R$ 6.48 per liter, the sector expects an average increase of 5% in the final price in Brazil.

The new rates were defined after an agreement with the STF (Federal Supreme Court), which ended a series of judicial questions of the law that unified the ICMS on fuels. Only gasoline was left out of the agreement, as it is not understood by the states as an essential product.