The President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, sanctioned, with vetoes, a law that authorizes gas stations to buy hydrated ethanol directly from producers or importers, releasing them from resorting to the intermediation of distributors.
The measure is in the Law No. 14,292, published in Official Diary of the Union of today (4) and is already in effect. The law also allows the retail resale of gasoline and hydrous ethanol outside the authorized establishment, as long as it is limited to the municipal territory where the retailer is established.
The new legal text also consolidates changes in federal tax rules already changed through the Provisional Measure No. 1,063, such as those dealing with the collection of contributions for Social Security Financing (Cofins) and for the Social Integration (PIS) and Public Servant Heritage Formation (Pasep) programs.
The law also exempts companies or consortia from proving that they are in good standing before federal, state and municipal farms and the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) to obtain, from the agency itself, authorization to work in the sector of biofuels.
According to the federal government, the initiative aims to increase competition in the fuel sector, eliminating the obligation for service stations to buy fuel alcohol only from distributors, which will be able to continue operating, but will have to offer attractions to keep customers.
vetoes
The president vetoed the section of the law that allowed ethanol production or marketing cooperatives to sell fuel directly to gas stations.
“Aiming at adapting to the constitutionality and public interest, the President of the Republic vetoed the provisions that dealt with direct sales and extended this permission to cooperatives that produce or sell ethanol”, explained, in a note, the General Secretariat of the Presidency of Republic.
The decision, according to the General Secretariat, is due to the fact that cooperatives enjoy tax benefits that tend to reduce their contributions. “The proposed legislation, thus, would create a tax waiver without the proper budget forecast, which violates the Article 14 of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, as well as constitutionality, as it distorts sectorial competition.”
Also according to the General Secretariat, the part of the bill that changes the PIS/Cofins collection system was sanctioned to avoid loss of revenue and competitive distortions, both to the importer (if it exercises the role of distributor) and to the retailer importing, who must pay the respective PIS/Cofins rates (5.25% PIS on gross revenue and 24.15% Cofins, levied per cubic meter of fuel).
* With information from the Senate Agency
