By majority vote, the state governments decided to end the freeze on the Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS) on fuel that had been in effect since November. The measure was decided today (14) at a meeting of the National Committee of State Secretaries of Finance (Comsefaz).
The governors have decided not to renew the freeze, which will end at the end of January. At the meeting at the end of October, Comsefaz had decided to maintain the ICMS while the Union, Petrobras, the National Congress and the states negotiated a definitive solution to cushion part of the impact of the readjustments in the refineries for the consumer.
According to Comsefaz, the thawing of ICMS was decided after Petrobras raised the price of fuel at refineries this week. At the first readjustment in 77 days, gasoline rose 4.85%, and diesel rose 8.08%.
Several times over the past year, President Jair Bolsonaro has blamed states for part of the fuel increases. The federal government wants ICMS to be charged as a fixed price per liter, as is the case with federal taxes.
Currently, ICMS is calculated as a percentage of the final price. This causes the tax to fluctuate with prices at pumps, rising when Petrobras readjusts prices at refineries and falling when the opposite occurs.
The governors consider the project to be palliative and defend the creation of a fuel price stabilization fund, which would avoid transfers to the consumer and, at the same time, finance eventual losses by Petrobras when the international price of oil and the dollar rises.
