Future minister criticizes Bolsonaro’s fuel exemption, but does not rule out politics

The future Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, said this Thursday (29) that President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) policy of reducing federal taxes on fuel is “harmful”, but he himself does not rule out future reductions in rates. .

Silveira was made official this Thursday, in a final announcement by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) of members of the first echelon of his government. Mines and Energy was one of the three folders destined for the PSD.

The PIS and Confins rates on cooking gas are permanently zeroed, while the exemption on diesel, gasoline and ethanol, adopted by Jair Bolsonaro on the eve of the election, is only valid until December 31 of this year. The measure put the future Lula government in front of an impasse between maintaining the reduction, at a cost of R$ 52.9 billion, or resuming taxation, with an impact on consumers’ pockets.

The current government also announced a stimulus package for states to reduce ICMS (Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services). The states were later forced to limit the ICMS rate to a maximum of 17% with the approval of a bill in the National Congress, which was articulated by the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), an ally of Jair Bolsonaro.

“We know the complexity of this, the damage that the issue of tax exemption caused in the last year. It has to be treated with great care, including not only in the Executive Branch, but also in the Legislature, so that we can move forward on the issue of economic stability , considering the need for legal certainty and predictability to attract investment,” Silveira told journalists shortly after the ministers’ announcement ceremony.

Subsequently, the future minister was asked if new exemptions would then be ruled out. “Nothing is ruled out,” he replied.

Silveira later added that this is not the time to disclose actions that can be taken, as it is a time of transition between teams. He just added that he has seen “dedication” from the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, to try to “minimize the impact of fuel prices on inflation”.

The extension of federal taxes has become one of the topics that demanded the attention of the economic team in recent days. The future Minister Fernando Haddad even asked the team of the current Economy Minister Paulo Guedes not to carry out the extension.

Under current rules, exemption ends on December 31.

Haddad became aware that the Ministry of Economy was preparing an MP (provisional measure) to extend the fuel exemption for up to 90 days and wanted to talk about the matter with the current minister.

The future head of the Treasury said that the increase in fuel prices is a concern, but that decisions do not need to be taken “in a hasty way”.

Initially, Fernando Haddad (PT) wants to define the course of the policy on fuels with the new directors of Petrobras. One of the points to be evaluated is the PPI (Import Price Parity), a price policy practiced by Petrobras since the Michel Temer (MDB) government, which guarantees alignment with the international market.

During the ministers’ announcement ceremony, Lula came to harshly criticize President Jair Bolsonaro for issuing provisional measures in the last days of his government. However, he was confused when he said that Bolsonaro had edited a provisional measure ending the exemption – which did not happen.

“As today he keeps sending PM […]. He didn’t have the courage and sent an MP now ending the exemption for diesel oil, gasoline, and it’s exactly two days before he leaves. Who knows, knows [ele faz isso] in the perspective that the people will put behind our backs. To reduce the price of gasoline, for oil, I didn’t need to deal with the ICMS, I could do something else. If only the same hand that announced the raise announced the reduction,” he said.

The provisional measures sent in recent days by Jair Bolsonaro, however, do not deal with fuel taxes. Afterwards, Fernando Haddad’s team released a note clarifying that Lula’s speech was not about the PIS/Confins fuel provisional measure, but one referring to the fuel exemption for the airline sector and another on the transfer price of multinationals.