The Brazilian government will return this week to collect federal taxes on gasoline and ethanol, suspended by the administration before the start of the electoral campaign last year, the Ministry of Finance announced Monday.
The tax collection percentages have yet to be reported by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, Xinhua highlights.
Before the exemption from the tax, the collection of taxes on gasoline was 79 cents of a real per liter (0.15 dollars).
Ethanol, on the other hand, had a tax differential that gave it an advantage over the petroleum derivative, for a collection of 24 cents of a real per liter (0.045 dollars).
With the return of taxes for ethanol and gasoline, the economic team has a reinforcement of about 29,000 million reais (about 5,575 million dollars in public coffers this year.
The measure is part of the set of actions of the Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to seek a reduction in the primary deficit of the public sector.
For diesel and cooking gas, federal taxes will remain zero until December 31.
Start of digital currency project
The president of the Central Bank of Brazil, Roberto Campos Neto, reported that, starting in March, a pilot project will begin to implement a virtual currency, which will be called digital real.
According to a dispatch from the Xinhua agency, the official pointed out that the official digital currency would be in force from the end of 2024, in order to work on security for users.
“In terms of next steps, next month we’ll have the pilot up and running, so next month we’ll already have a digital currency pilot. Brazil will be one of the first countries in the world to do this,” she said.
In this sense, he pointed out that this measure will be an extension of the money currently used.
With this, he indicated, there will be no need to make a new regulation to launch the digital currency in the South American country.
Similarly, the Central Bank official stressed that the formation of a “block” of instant payments is being negotiated with Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay, in the style of Pix, the current digital payment system in Brazil.
