In reaction to fuel hike, senators also approved change in Petrobras pricing policy

11/03/2022

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Rodrigo Pacheco — Foto: Claudio Belli/Valor

The Brazilian Senate Thursday passed by 56 votes to 8 the final text of the draft supplementary bill 11, 2020, which changes the sales tax ICMS receipts in the states. The Senate, therefore, concluded the appreciation of the so-called “fuel package” — which also includes bill 1472, aimed at changing Petrobras’s pricing policy. Now, both bills will be analyzed by the Chamber of Deputies.

Also passed on Thursday by 61 to 8 votes, the bill 1,472 amends and creates a tariff stabilization mechanism. The proposal is criticized by the economic team, but it was considered as part of an agreement built between the leaders of the Chamber and the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes. The text creates a kind of “gasoline voucher,” at a cost of approximately R$3 billion, intended for recipients of the cash transfer program Auxílio Brasil.

The approval of the two bills took place on the same day that Petrobras announced a new fuel price hike, which generated annoyance among both ruling and opposition senators. “The announcement of the Petrobras price increase imposes on the Senate the consideration [of the fuel package] still today,” Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (Social Democratic Party, PSD, of Rondônia) said earlier in the afternoon.

In addition to allowing changes in ICMS levied on fuels, the bill establishes the exemption of the social taxes PIS and Cofins rates, both in the domestic market and in imports, for diesel, biodiesel, LPG (petroleum and natural gas) and aviation kerosene, until December 31, 2022. Initially, the text did not consider the possibility of also exempting the import tax rates, but this was adjusted in the last opinion of the rapporteur, Senator Jean Paul Prates (Workers Party, PT, of Rio Grande do Norte).

The bill 11 considers final details to the single-phase receipts of ICMS on fuels in the states, which will be pending regulation by the governors to be enforced — through the National Council of Finance Policy (Confaz). This regulation is necessary especially for the adoption of a uniform national rate. In addition, the text proposes an emergency transition rule for diesel, in a gesture to please truckers, who are the electoral base of President Jair Bolsonaro.

According to the project, until the diesel tax single-phase receipt is adopted — and the corresponding unification of the rate — the reference value for stipulating the tax will be the moving average of the average prices collected from the final consumer in the five years prior to its fixing.

In a scenario of ICMS unification, the governors may opt for an ad rem rate, when the ICMS is charged from a fixed amount per liter. Currently, the states practice the ad valorem model, which uses a percentage of the price value.

Finally, bill 11 brings a trigger for the possible variation of the ad rem rate. Mr. Prates’s text says that whenever the weight of the ad rem rate is higher or lower by 5% than the moving six-month average of the national average price, the states and the Federal District (Brasília) must necessarily raise the tax. This proposal was suggested by Senator Oriovisto Guimarães (Podemos, of Paraná) and accepted by the rapporteur.

The rapporteur’s text also guarantees the so-called “gas voucher,” which aims to put in place a subsidy for low-income families when purchasing LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinders. Senator Prates proposes expanding the service to 11 million families by 2022. This number is double the target in relation to the values originally approved in the Annual Budget Law. In the rapporteur’s estimates, to serve this additional public, it will be necessary to increase the program’s budget to R$1.9 billion.

As for the “gasoline voucher,” the article says that payments will be made monthly as follows: R$300 for self-employed drivers of individual transport, including taxi drivers and app drivers, drivers or pilots of small boats with engines of up to 16 HP and app motorcycle pilots, provided they have a monthly family income of up to three minimum wages (a little more than R$3,600).

Source: Valor International

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