This Wednesday, the 25th, the Federal Senate approved a complementary bill that establishes a transition tax regime for the chemical and petrochemical industry in 2026, with an incentive three times greater than previously foreseen for this year’s Budget, from R$1.1 billion to R$3.1 billion. There were 59 votes in favor and three against. Already approved in the Chamber, the matter will be sanctioned by the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
The proposal regulates temporary PIS/Pasep and Cofins rates for the Special Chemical Industry Regime (Reiq), until the Special Chemical Industry Sustainability Program (Presiq) comes into force in 2027.
The 2026 Budget provided for only R$1.1 billion for the measure, but the vice-president and minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin, announced last week that the government would increase the amount allocated to the transition regime.
The project presented by Carlos Zarattini (PT-SP) only provided that the tax waiver resulting from a certain tax benefit would be limited to R$1.1 billion in 2026. However, the rapporteur, Afonso Motta (PDT-RS), began to divide the limit into two blocks.
The rapporteur added a limit of R$2 billion to another part of the tax benefits for the sector, expanding the global ceiling. The justification for the initial project already provided for a total waiver of R$3.1 billion, but the rapporteur incorporated the idea into the actual text.
The project also began to provide that tax benefits will be extinguished in the month following the month in which the established limits are reached.
Continues after advertising
According to the project, the impact is offset by the forecast of R$1.1 billion for this purpose in the revenue projection of the 2026 Annual Budget Law and by compensation, in the amount of R$2 billion, related to the revenue gain provided by the law that instituted a 10% linear reduction in federal tax benefits.
The text provides that the Contribution to PIS/Pasep and Cofins owed by the producer or importer of petrochemical naphtha levied on the gross revenue arising from this product to petrochemical plants will be calculated based on the rates of 1.52% and 7% for triggering events occurring from January 2025 to February 2026 and 0.62% and 2.83% for triggering events occurring in March from 2026 to December 2026.
The rule will now be applied to sales of natural gas and ammonia for the production of sodium cyanide, hydrocyanic acid, methacrylates, acetonacyanidrin, methacrylic acid, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. It also provides for the application of rules for the sale of n-paraffin, palm kernel oil, cumene and 1,2-dichloroethane as inputs in the production of items such as polyethylene, polypropylene, dichloroethane, among other products.
In the justification, “severe structural challenges” in the sector are mentioned. The authors of the proposal mention the high cost of natural gas and a deficit in the trade balance of chemical products, which reached US$44.1 billion in 2025, according to figures presented by him.
