Increase in ICMS on fuel impacts consumer pockets

The National Council for Finance Policy decided that, as of June 1st, the single ICMS rate on gasoline and anhydrous alcohol will be R$ 1.22 per liter. According to information from the National Committee of Finance Secretaries of the States and the Federal District (Consefaz), the new value is in accordance with the terms of the unification of ICMS on fuels “to the”that is, national and specific, charged only once.

According to the tax specialist André Félix Ricotta de Oliveira, president of the Tax and Constitutional Law Commission of the OAB/SP – Pinheiros subsection, the implementation of the new single-phase fuel rate by the government should not cause major inconvenience. “The ICMS on fuel was already done under the tax substitution regime, which is a way of anticipating the tax that is levied on the entire production chain, right up to the final consumer”, he explained.

See how much ICMS is being charged by state, in the first half of April:

According to information from the National Federation of Trade in Fuels and Lubricants (Fecombustiveis), for the time being, state tariffs are being charged differently because the new “single-phase tax” rule has not yet been implemented. For Ricotta, the single-phase regime “is nothing more than an anticipation of the ICMS, which falls on the production chain to the final consumer, in a single phase – that’s why it is called monophasic”, he clarified. collection terms, it doesn’t change that much”.

Misrepresentation

However, according to the tax specialist, these changes in the calculation regime, creating a single-phase regime, creating tax redistribution, which already existed through constitutional amendments to the ICMS, end up distorting the entire tax: “The ICMS was supposed to be a value-added tax , however, creating a forward tax redistribution regime and, now, single-phase on fuels, misrepresent this tax”. For Ricotta, who holds a doctorate and master’s degree in Tax Law from PUC/SP, the new regime will make transport companies – which used credits from diesel and gasoline – lose the right to offset ICMS credit and debit , through the “principle of non-cumulativeness”.

“For these companies, which were in the normal calculation regime, the single-phase regime does not entitle to credit. So they will have an increase in the tax burden – if this increase is substantial, it is up to these companies to resort to the Judiciary”, differentiated the specialist.

Regime Granted

“This effect does not occur for transport companies that use granted credit, which is a benefit for calculating the ICMS, where they waive the ICMS credits arising from the entry and acquisition of goods and carry out a calculation simply through this granted credit”, he added. Ricotta.

“Therefore, this must be observed,” he warned. “Those who used fuel credit, ICMS credit arising from the fuel issue, will lose this right, through the granted regime, which does not have the provision to give tax credit to deduct from their debt”, concluded the tax specialist.