Fuel recharging makes budgeting for the car urgent – 02/28/2023 – Maria Inês Dolci

The return of fuel taxation was a matter of time. Despite the fact that the tax meter, electronic panel of the Commercial Association of São Paulo, already surpassed R$ 500 billion in February, government accounts never close in Brazil and the easiest way out is to tax citizens.

As fuel prices have a direct impact on inflation and the mood of the middle class, Petrobras reduced the price of gasoline by 3.9% to offset the return of taxation.

Even with the announcement of a measure that eases the weight of the other, the consumer will undoubtedly have to make a budget just for his car. After all, it may be that later on fuel prices rise again due to the international market or another parameter.

This budget should include not only the monthly cost of going to the gas stations but IPVA (Tax on Motor Vehicle Property); car insurance; pit stop at the workshop (for general repairs, oil changes, filters, additives, etc.) and at the hammer to eliminate scratches and dents; expenses at the car wash station (place to wash the vehicle, not the police operation), tolls and parking. Not to mention the fines, which are not that rare.

As getting a salary adjustment is as easy as losing 10 kilos in a month, we will have to be even stricter with the household budget. Whoever can, leave the car in the garage and move by bicycle, public transport or app. Another option would be to make collective use of the vehicle. That is, give colleagues and neighbors a ride and share the cost of the trip.

Drivers who use the car very little, because they work from home and don’t travel often, may conclude that it is not worth the cost of this good.

If the government’s objective were to protect the environment, it could maintain the tax exemption for biofuels and facilitate the acquisition of electric cars. Other measures would be to expand investment in railways and subways. And, as I have already written in this space, to promote water transport for passengers across the country again.

The most urgent thing, however, is to improve public transport and make more and better cycle paths, so that the car is more of an option than a necessity.

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