States react to new project text that changes fuel ICMS

State Finance Secretaries reacted to the replacement of bill 11/2020, which changes the ICMS (Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services) rules on fuels. Presented this Tuesday (15) by the rapporteur, Senator Jean Paul Prates (PT-RN), the text also displeased the Ministry of Economy.

The Comsefaz (Committee of State Finance Secretaries) states that the text, by implementing the collection of a single ICMS rate on fuel throughout the national territory, will end up raising taxes.

“The implementation of a uniform rate in a new regime would inevitably lead to an increase in the tax burden”, says Comsefaz in a letter signed by 27 state secretaries.

“The states with the lowest loads would need to raise their incidences to the level that guarantees the collection of the states with the highest loads, in order to reach a rate whose generation of resources was of a uniform percentage size throughout the national territory”, they say.

For the secretaries, the text starts from the mistaken premise that the increase in fuel is caused by ICMS. “The ICMS rules have not been changed for almost two decades. There have been no recent changes in rates, nor in the calculation system, which has been the same since 2007”, they say.

The values ​​observed at the gas stations, they say, are the result of the pricing policy exercised by Petrobras since 2016, which has adhered to international oil prices and the exchange rate. “[Isso] has allowed to increase the volume of distribution of dividends to national and foreign shareholders, as it exacerbates their profit in the face of an escalation of international prices”, they say.

The secretaries claim that the changes suggested by bill 11/2020 are unconstitutional and do not reduce prices. Therefore, they ask the Senate to process another project – PL 1472/2020, which creates the need for domestic prices to have the cost of production as a reference and creates a fund to stabilize prices (this proposal is rejected by the Ministry of Economy) .

The complementary bill reported by Prates originated in the Chamber of Deputies, where it was approved in September after a great articulation by the president of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

Prates’ report practically disregards the text approved by the House. The PT senator points out that the initial proposal has flaws of unconstitutionality, as it offends the autonomy of states to determine ICMS rates.

The Ministry of Economy, which bet its chips on the project to address the issue of fuels, assesses that the project’s replacement was displeased in different aspects.

First, because it expanded the use of resources currently subject to the spending cap for gas assistance, a program that pays 50% of the average price of a gas cylinder every two months to needy families. The view is that there is no fiscal space for an increase in the program created by a congressional bill, which will already cost BRL 1.9 billion in 2022.

In addition, the economic team assesses that the substitute did not advance in topics such as the definition of the single rate, the charge per liter, the periodicity of the adjustment, in addition to not dealing with PIS/Cofins. Everything would be subject to the decision of the governors, say members, which basically maintains the current situation.

The price of fuel is a priority for President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and the allied base, which fears the impact on the elections and has sought different initiatives to address the issue.

This Tuesday (15), Bolsonaro published the third MP (Provisional Measure) that authorizes the direct sale of ethanol from producers to gas stations in seven months, after back and forth in the processing of two previous measures (from August and September) in Congress. .

In both Houses of Parliament, reducing fuel prices is the main agenda at the moment. In the Chamber, government deputy Christino Áureo (PP-RJ) filed a PEC (Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution) with the approval of the Planalto.

In the Senate, another dubbed “PEC Kamikaze” appeared by the economic team. She had the support of government ministers and the senator and son of the president, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ).

Recently, Lira started to defend the approval of the project that changes the collection of ICMS on fuels before Congress advances in the discussion of the PEC that affects federal taxes.