This Tuesday (4), President Jair Bolsonaro sanctioned the bill on the purchase and sale of ethanol in Brazil. An excerpt that concerned the direct sale of ethanol by cooperatives that produce the biofuel was vetoed.
“Aiming at adapting to the constitutionality and public interest, the President of the Republic vetoed the provisions that dealt with direct sales and extended this permission to cooperatives that produce or sell ethanol,” stated the President of the Republic in a note.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday (5), economist and coordinator of the Economics course at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (Faap), Paulo Dutra Costantin, said that the direct sale of ethanol by cooperatives would not have an impact to the point of reducing the final price for the consumer per “a matter of scale of production and sale”.
The professor explains that the justification given by Planalto is that the revenues generated by sales by producing cooperatives are exempt from two federal taxes – PIS and Cofins.
“So he [governo federal] it would give up revenue without, on the other hand, generating an alternative source of revenue for the public budget. This is fully coherent and is defending the Fiscal Responsibility Law”, said the economist.
The professor also argues that the entry of producer cooperatives in this bill could lead to unfair competition in the market, because they would compete with producer plants that need to pay PIS and Cofins.
“It would also have a great incentive for the plants to become cooperatives, and with that to further reduce revenue. It would create a very big distortion in the sector”, he declared.
He also claims that capitals in the Northeast will benefit from the veto. “Northeastern local producers sell directly to the nearest consumer centers, which has a lower cost, and they benefit from it,” he said, explaining that the region could see a drop in fuel prices.
Reference: CNN Brasil
