Pressure against MP on ICMS does not work, says secretary – 07/04/2023 – Panel SA

A new attempt at pressure opened this week by supermarkets, restaurants and other representatives of commerce and services against the provisional measure that excludes ICMS from the calculation basis of contribution credits for PIS and Cofins was off the government’s radar. But it was interpreted as a distorted pressure that should not succeed in the tax debate, according to the Federal Revenue Secretary, Robinson Barreirinhas.

Among the provisional measures of the Lula government, that of ICMS on the calculation basis is treated as the most consensual. This week, however, Unecs, which brings together associations such as Abrasel (bars and restaurants), Abras (supermarkets) and Abad (wholesalers) approached parliamentarians asking them to overthrow it. They say the measure will increase the tax burden and raise the prices of goods and services, a claim the government is treating as false.

According to the Ministry of Finance, in practice, the MP is in line with the decision already taken by the STF on the subject and will help to reduce litigation, removing misinterpretations of the legislation.
Barreirinhas states that if the STF removed ICMS from the PIS/Cofins calculation base, it is evident that this applies to the entire chain, both in debits and credits.

“It’s a mathematical question. If there was no coherence between entry and exit, that is, if the decision of the STF were applied only on exit, in certain cases, the tax burden could be negative, that is, the Union would be liable for PIS Cofins in favor of certain taxpayers. This is in the explanatory statement of the MP”, he says.

The secretary claims that the Unecs suggestion is unfeasible and that the pressure attempt did not reach the government on the part of tax specialists and economists who follow the issue.

“This type of pressure cannot succeed, not least because we would have to take another measure to balance it, because it would simply overthrow the logic of non-cumulativeness. We would not be able to admit this, we would have to take some other measure in court”, says Barreirinhas.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins It is Diego Felix

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