Government will charge R$ 0.47 in taxes per liter of gasoline starting this Wednesday

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, announced this Tuesday (28) the return of federal taxes on fuel. With this, the price of a liter of gasoline should immediately incorporate approximately R$ 0.47 referring to taxes, while that of ethanol, R$ 0.02. However, with the reduction of R$ 0.13 in the value of gasoline sold by Petrobras refineries to distributors, the increase in gasoline should be R$ 0.34.

“The gasoline charge will be R$ 0.47, with the R$ 0.13 discount from Petrobras gives a net balance of R$ 0.34. And the re-encumbrance of ethanol will be R$ 0.02”, said the minister at a press conference alongside the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira. He stated that the government’s expectation was of a greater drop in the price of gasoline by Petrobras.

According to Haddad, the government waited for Petrobras’ decision on the drop in the price of gasoline for distributors. As a result, the partial return of federal taxes was determined. The impact of full collection of PIS, Cofins and Cide would be R$0.69 per liter of gasoline and R$0.24 per liter of ethanol.

In addition to the reencumbrance, Haddad announced that the government will issue a provisional measure to charge a 9.2% tax on crude oil exports for the next four months. He pointed out that the objective is to recompose the federal public budget from the point of view of expenses and revenues.

“Recalling that diesel is exempt until the end of the year. Therefore, the price of diesel must fall, because there will be no re-encumbrance. Diesel has a very important impact on the production chain, it has an important deflationary effect,” said Haddad.

After an internal dispute in the government regarding the resumption or not of federal taxation on fuels, the Ministry of Finance announced on Monday (27) that the incidence of PIS, Cofins and Cide would return, but with a different model of taxation.

The final decision was taken at a meeting in which President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) received Haddad, the Chief Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and the President of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, at the Planalto Palace.

The objective of the resumption is to ensure R$ 28.88 billion in additional revenue, provided for in a fiscal adjustment package announced by the ministry in January and, with this, reduce the primary deficit, projected at R$ 231 billion in the 2023 Budget.

In order to reduce the impact of the measure on the consumer’s pocket, Haddad said, still on Monday, that the government could use a “mattress” from Petrobras, referring to the greater difference in the price charged by the company in its refineries in relation to international parity.

This Tuesday (28), Petrobras announced that it will reduce the average price of a liter of gasoline sold to distributors by R$ 0.13, from R$ 3.31 to R$ 3.18. In the disclosure, the state-owned company said that the decision was taken in the “search for the balance of Petrobras prices to the national and international markets” and to “avoid the pass-through of the conjunctural volatility of quotations and the exchange rate”.

The announcement came a day after the executive secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Gabriel Galípolo, traveled to Rio de Janeiro to meet with the company’s board of directors.

Gasoline and ethanol have been exempt from federal taxes since March 2022

Federal taxation on fuels has been suspended since March last year, when then-president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) sanctioned Complementary Law 192/2022 with the aim of reducing consumer prices of oil products. Proposed and approved on the eve of the beginning of the electoral campaign, the text established the exemption only until the last December 31st.

At the end of last year, Haddad already defended that fuels should be taxed again, but Lula accepted the position of the group led by the party president, Gleisi Hoffmann, who was in favor of extending the benefit.

In a provisional measure (MP) signed by the president on January 1, the zero rate of federal taxes on gasoline and ethanol was extended for two months – until this Tuesday –, while diesel and cooking gas are free from federal taxation until December 31, 2023.

In addition to fearing damage to the image of the government that had just been elected, the government’s political wing is concerned about the effects of the reencumbrance on inflation, already projected by the market above the ceiling of the target for this year.

As fuels have a weight of 5% in the basket considered by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) for the calculation of the Extended Consumer Price Index (IPCA), the impact of tax returns may increase the indicator by 0.75 percentage points .