Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) defined Senator Fernando Bezerra (MDB-PE) as rapporteur of the Complementary Law Project (PLP) 18/2022. The project limits the application of the Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS) on goods and services related to fuel, natural gas, electricity, communications and public transport. The proposal originated in the Chamber, where it was approved at the end of May..
Pacheco announced his decision after a meeting with finance secretaries, late this afternoon (30). The meeting served as the first contact between senators and secretaries – the latter group concerned with the drop in revenue that the project may bring. Another project that reaches the Senate is PLP 211/2021, which sets a limit for the taxation of essential goods, especially energy, oil, telecommunications and gas.
“The secretaries, of course, have considerations for these projects presented. Due to the Senate’s profile, we have this obligation to give the State Finance Secretaries this opportunity for these considerations, suggestions and eventual improvement of the text. But there is a commitment to guide these projects that came from the Chamber in the Senate”, said Pacheco. He referred to a commitment made with the president of that House, Arthur Lira, not to let these projects stall in the Senate.
Bezerra will have his first meeting with the secretaries tomorrow (31). At the meeting, the concerns of the secretaries, already raised in today’s meeting, will be exposed. “Tomorrow we will begin to receive the first data, concrete numbers on the repercussions that the matter approved in the Chamber may have on the finances of Brazilian states”, said Bezerra.
Senator Jean Paul Prates (PT-RN) will also participate in the meeting and in the preparation of the report, who reported on another project on fuel, which created a price stabilization account. This project was approved in the Senate and is in the House, with no date to be voted on.
Pacheco, however, has already said that the Senate will not take long to take the matter to the plenary. “[A reunião de hoje] this is the beginning of this dialogue, which will not last long. We will very quickly seek to have a definition from the Senate in relation to this project”.
Diesel
In addition to dealing with the ICMS rate, PLP 18/22 also brings changes in the legislation that stipulated the establishment of a single ICMS rate for fuels in all states, with the collection of the tax by volume instead of rate.
The change eliminates the possibility of an agreement by the National Council for Finance Policy (Confaz) establishing the rates for diesel in a different format from the transition imposed by the law, which determines the use of the moving average of prices charged to the final consumer in the five years prior to the its fixation by the council. The measure is valid only until December 31, 2022.
According to the president of Comsefaz (National Committee of State and Federal District Finance Secretaries), Décio Padilha, the secretaries are willing to make sacrifices. “From the diesel point of view, what will be debated at Confaz is the applicability of the moving average in the 60 months”.
He also expressed concern about a profound change of rules to solve a “conjunctural” crisis. “A conjunctural problem must have a conjunctural solution. A conjunctural problem with only a structural solution, this account does not close, because one day the conjuncture disappears. And not the structural change, if you change it here, it will compromise health education for ten, 15 years. This has been debated, senators are sensitive.”
