Government discusses keeping only diesel in PEC of Fuels

With the strong resistance of the financial market, the federal government is discussing dehydrating the Fuels PEC and keeping only the forecast of tax reduction on diesel in the initiative that should be presented in February to the National Congress.

The topic was discussed at a meeting this Thursday (27) at Palácio do Planalto, in which there was no consensus on the final format of the proposal. According to palace advisors, the dehydration of the initiative is supported by the economic team.

In recent days, Palácio do Planalto received criticism from businessmen and congressmen that the possibility of reducing or temporarily exempting PIS/Cofins and ICMS on fuel and energy is unfeasible in the current fiscal framework.

In addition to the forecast of a federal tax waiver of R$ 69 billion, the proposal, as recognized by members of the government itself, may have its impact reduced in the face of a large increase in the price of a barrel of oil.

In an attempt to make a feasible initiative feasible, the federal government is considering reducing the scope of the project, keeping only diesel, which would reduce the forecast of federal tax waiver to R$ 20 billion.

The argument for choosing diesel is that lowering its price can have a greater impact than gasoline on consumer inflation, since the fuel is used to fuel public and freight transport.

The draft proposal has already been prepared, but is still undergoing changes. The idea is that the text will be discussed next week with the presidents of the Federal Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), and of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

The idea is for the initiative to be presented by the future leader of the government in the Federal Senate, Alexandre Silveira (PSD-MG), in the first half of February.

Today, according to government advisors, the greatest difficulty has been to find financial compensation for eventual tax waivers.

The counterpart does not need to be included in the Fuels PEC, but the Palácio do Planalto intends to announce the alternative to avoid the criticism of dribbling the Fiscal Responsibility Law.