The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), this Tuesday (3) charged the states for not adopting the new tax rules for fuels, approved by the National Congress in March to try to contain the rise in prices.
Pacheco sent a letter with the charge to Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy), who is the president of Confaz (National Council for Finance Policy). The text asks that the council members “reconsider the definition of the new ICMS taxation system on fuels”.
To further mark his position, the Minas Gerais senator read the entire letter during a plenary session of the Senate.
On March 11, Congress concluded the vote on the bill that amends the collection of ICMS (Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services) on fuels and resets the PIS/Cofins rates on diesel and gas by the end of 2022, the year electoral.
According to the text of the project, the states will have to regulate the creation of a single ICMS rate on fuels within the scope of Confaz. In addition, the text provides for a change in the rate model, from a percentage on the value (ad valorem) to a fixed value on the liter (ad rem).
However, on March 24, Confaz established a single ICMS rate on diesel that will have a maximum limit of R$ 1.006 across the country, but each state will be able to grant a kind of tax benefit that will, in practice, result in a lower charge to its consumers.
In the letter sent to Guedes, Pacheco argues that the new rules approved by the National Congress, in particular the option for ad rem taxation, have the additional advantage of minimizing the impact of taxes on price fluctuations.
“In relation to diesel oil, due to its central importance to the economy, a transition rule was established so that the calculation base, provisionally, was equivalent to the moving average of the average prices charged to the final consumer in the 60 months prior to its establishment” , says the letter of the President of the Senate.
Pacheco then adds that the transition rule was intended to give “immediate effectiveness to the new tax system”, which would mitigate the effect of the fluctuation of oil prices in the international market, reducing the effect of taxes on the formation of the final price. .
It then charges the non-adoption of the new rules.
“We were surprised, therefore, when Confaz, on March 24, established a single rate for diesel at the highest level in force and allowed each federated entity to determine, at its discretion, a factor to equalize the tax burden. to act like that, neutralized and emptied the objectives of the law”, he says.
Pacheco then adds that, in practice, the effective rate has not become uniform throughout the national territory.
“In addition, the value charged was completely dissociated from proportionality and ignored the parameters brought by the law itself in the transition rule. It did not contribute, in short, to the efforts made by the National Congress to establish balanced, proportional and fair taxation, and that seeks to reduce fuel prices”, he adds.
Pacheco then concludes by asking the president of Confaz, in the Guedes case, to transmit these considerations to the other members and recommend that they reconsider the decision on the taxation of ICMS on fuel, “in a way that privileges tax justice and the public interest, the expectations of the consumer and the determination of the legislator, with a view to the final reduction of the prices charged from the consumer”.
In the same session, the president of the Senate accused the government of failing to comply with an agreement on the reduction of the IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products). Pacheco corroborated the speech of senators from the state of Amazonas, who pointed out that the tax reduction did not create an exception for products from the Manaus Free Trade Zone region.
The Minas Gerais senator said he is not against the tax reduction.
“But there was a commitment to exceptionalize the products produced from the Basic Productive Process, the PPB, in the Manaus Free Trade Zone, precisely so that a flagrant damage would not be generated to an entire state, to a city like Manaus and to the people of Amazonas” , he said.
“And I am a witness to the agreement established on that occasion and I can say that, in relation to this point of non-exceptionalization, in the IPI reduction decree, to these PPB system of the Manaus Free Trade Zone, there was a flagrant breach of agreement. I am a witness to this and, of course, I will seek, without making notes of intent or deliberate intent, to point out that there was an agreement established and that the Federal Government needs to remedy this issue in relation to the Manaus Free Trade Zone”, he added.
At another time, the president of the Senate also reinforced that this issue “will have ramifications”.
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