Petrobras announced this Tuesday (26) that it paid, throughout 2023, R$240.2 billion in taxes and government participation related to oil exploration and production.
The company appears as the largest taxpayer in the country, despite the sum being lower than the previous year, 2022, when it paid R$279 billion. The reduction is in line with the behavior of the state-owned company’s profit, which fell by 33.8% between 2023 and 2022
Of the total paid in 2023, R$178.8 billion are taxes, with R$87.4 billion in federal payments; R$ 90.2 billion, state; and R$1.2 billion, municipal.
Federal taxes are taxes on profit (IRPJ and CSLL) and on revenue (PIS and Cofins). Furthermore, in February last year the government issued Provisional Measure 1,163/2023, establishing a 9.2% tax rate on the export of crude oil, on a temporary basis, which came into force in June. In 2023, R$1.4 billion in oil export taxes were paid.
State taxes relate to the Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS). The municipal ones, mainly the Service Tax (ISS) and Urban Property and Territorial Property Tax (IPTU).
Main municipalities
The municipality that received the most transfers from Petrobras is Macaé, in the north of Rio de Janeiro, with R$253.7 million, a value almost triple that of second place, Cubatão (SP). The Campos Basin, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro, is part of the Macaé coverage area.
In the list of main cities, three are from Rio de Janeiro (Macaé, the capital and Duque de Caxias) and three from São Paulo (Cubatão, the capital and São Sebastião).
Royalties
Another R$61.4 billion transferred to the state are the so-called government shares, which mainly includes royalties for oil exploration and special participation (PE) – an extraordinary financial compensation owed by oil or natural gas exploration and production concessionaires for fields with large production volumes. About 60% of these payments are royalties; and 40%, from PE.
The values of r collectionsoyalties and special participation are directly related to the prices of oil and natural gas on the international market, quoted in dollars.
According to the company, this set of values transferred to governments “are fundamental to financing public policies, positively impacting society as a whole”.
The company explains that the total transferred to governments includes taxes withheld from third parties, “since the company has a legal duty to collect taxes throughout the entire chain, as a responsible or tax substitute”.
The technique of tax substitution is widely disseminated in the National Tax System and seeks to promote a concentration of collection in a few economic agents to facilitate the collection and inspection of taxes.
Other countries
The state-owned company’s 2023 fiscal report also points out that US$452.74 million in taxes were paid abroad. This is equivalent to around R$2.2 billion. The biggest transfer is in the Netherlands, with US$368.92 million. In 2023, the company had 41 companies incorporated abroad (28 subsidiaries, two affiliates and 11 jointly controlled operations or ventures).
Petrobras emphasizes that, in January 2023, the Board of Directors approved the Tax Policy which, among others, provides for the commitment not to have equity interests in jurisdictions recognized as having favored taxation, the so-called tax havens.
