Governors of 11 states go to the STF against change in ICMS approved by Congress

Representatives criticized the measure approved in March, which they considered ‘charity with someone else’s hat’ and said to be populist and electoral.

Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil
STF will have to decide on a question about a law that changed rules for tax rates on fuels

governors of 11 States filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) this Wednesday, 22, to question the complementary law 192, approved by the Congress in March this year. The law changes the rules for ICMS, state tax and fixed a single incidence with a uniform rate, in reais, for different fuels, such as gasoline, diesel oil and ethanol. For the elected representatives of Pernambuco, Maranhão, Paraíba, Piauí, Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul, Sergipe, Rio Grande do Norte, Alagoas, Ceará and Rio Grande do Sul, the Congress violated the “federative pact and the autonomy of subnational entities” when legislating a state tax.

“Such legislative innovation brought serious risks to the governance of States, the Federal District, in view of the immense losses generated with the loss of direct collection, and even for Municipalities, given the corresponding reduction in mandatory constitutional transfers”, states the piece. For the States, the measure is populist, electoral and ineffective, since it does not deal with the formation of fuel prices determined by Petrobras, with costs such as production, refining and importation, in addition to not having carried out an impact study for the collection of States. “This is true ‘charity with someone else’s hat’, a budgetary liberality to be suffered by states, DF and municipalities, all surprised by the unilateral, authoritarian, drastic measure and with serious immediate effects for the weakened coffers of these entities”, argue the States. Earlier this Wednesday, the National Council for Finance Policy (Confaz) decided to overturn the agreement that provided that, as of July 1, the tax rate on diesel oil would be R$ 1.066 per liter.