The National Treasury and the states are very close to announcing an agreement around the replacement of ICMS losses that occurred in 2022 due to the drop in rates on fuel, energy, transport and communications.
The final amount should be R$ 26.9 billion and be announced in the next few days, two sources from the state governments and a member of the economic team in Brasília told CNN privately.
The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, is personally committed to enacting the agreement. This number has already been brought to his attention. If there is unanimity among the States (and until now there have been no manifestations against it), it will be the result of the negotiations, which began in December of last year.
In the description of people close to Haddad, it will be a “very important milestone in the reconstruction of federative relations”. States that have debts with the Union must reduce the amounts, in a kind of reckoning, without an effective injection of federal resources into the state governments’ cash in 2023. However, the amounts that exceed the debts will be paid by the Treasury.
There was flexibility on both sides to reach an agreement. At the beginning of the negotiations, the States calculated the losses at R$ 45 billion and the Union offered a replacement of R$ 13 billion. In a second round of conversations, the difference was narrowed: the governors asked for BRL 37 billion and the Treasury spoke of BRL 22 billion.
In the last stage of talks, the two sides were already converging on something between R$ 26 billion and R$ 30 billion. CNN had already anticipated this approximate number in February.
“I see with extreme optimism the possibility of signing this agreement in the first half of March. We are very close”, said to CNN the secretary of Taxation of Rio Grande do Norte, Carlos Eduardo Xavier, who chairs Comsefaz, the committee of state secretaries of Finance and Finance.
According to Xavier, the states have their finances under pressure and need to address urgent issues, such as guaranteeing enough cash to pay for the new national base for teachers. “Before we even talk about a more robust investment agenda, we need to adjust our accounts”, said the secretary.
The Lula government intends to present the agreement as a new phase in the relationship between the federative entities and use the understanding as a criticism of the Jair Bolsonaro administration. Haddad himself has already called the fuel tax exemptions, adopted last year, Bolsonaro’s “muddle” on the eve of the election campaign.
Law 192 eliminated the collection of PIS and Cofins taxes on fuels and established that ICMS was levied on the product only once. Law 194, on the other hand, established a ceiling (17% or 18% in 2022) for the collection of ICMS on products and services considered essential, such as fuel, electricity, communication services and public transport.
According to a governor interviewed by CNN, the value of R$ 26.9 billion in ICMS replacement is accepted by all states, “provided that the Tusd/Tust issue and the non-essentiality of gasoline are also definitively resolved”.
An injunction granted by Minister Luiz Fux, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), allowed the resumption of the inclusion of the Tariff for Use of the Distribution System (Tusd) and the Tariff for Use of the Transmission System (Tust) in the ICMS calculation basis charged on electricity.
The injunction was maintained by the majority of STF ministers last week. The decision represents a relief for the cashier of the States. Now, confirmation of merit is awaited.
On the question of gasoline, it would be necessary to send a complementary bill to the National Congress, reviewing the text approved last year.
Source: CNN Brasil
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