R$ 0.63 per liter. That is how much Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, raised the average price it charges distributors for gasoline on Tuesday night (9), effective Thursday (10), according to UOL. Drivers should not feel it: the federal government cut fuel taxes by the same amount, so pump prices are expected to hold.
The increase combines two changes: a direct rise of R$ 0.19 and the end of a R$ 0.44 discount the company had been giving distributors. The average sale price to distributors now stands at R$ 3.24 per liter. Passed on to consumers, the move would add R$ 31.50 to a 50-liter tank.
How the math works
Here is the chain: Petrobras does not sell fuel directly to drivers. It sells to distributors, which supply gas stations, and every step adds taxes and margins to the final price. PIS and Cofins are federal charges collected on each liter, and the government cut them by R$ 0.63 on gasoline, offsetting the company's increase before it reaches the pump, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
The end of the discount has a legal cause. Provisional Measure 1.358/2026, in force since May, allowed the government to fund a R$ 0.44 per liter support payment to fuel producers and importers; it expired on Wednesday (9), and Petrobras announced the discount was over, ND Mais reported. On diesel, the company said it is waiting for the new rules to be published before revising prices.
On the same day, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued a decree and a provisional measure cutting R$ 0.63 of PIS/Cofins on gasoline and R$ 0.19 on hydrous ethanol, and allowing up to R$ 1.00 more in subsidies per liter of diesel. Folha puts the monthly cost at about R$ 7 billion, more than R$ 200 million a day in public money. The measures run from September 10 to October 9, just after the first round of Brazil's presidential election.
With the cut, the remaining federal tax on gasoline falls to R$ 0.16 per liter, and ethanol's federal charge drops to zero. On diesel, added to a R$ 1.12 subsidy already in place until September 26, government support could reach R$ 2.12 per liter by that date. If oil stays expensive because of the conflict between the United States and Iran, holding prices steady will cost the Treasury ever more.