Pemex was the great beneficiary of the fiscal incentives for gasoline

Mexican oil (Pemex) was the big winner with the strategy of the president’s government Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to contain gasoline prices, according to an analysis of the Economic and Budgetary Research Center (CIEP).

Last year, amid the escalation of the oil pricesthe government implemented a complementary fiscal stimulus for gasoline, in addition to the existing one in the IEPS for fuels.

The foregoing led to the fact that in 2022 397,298 million pesos were not collected just for stimuli; However the CIEP indicated that there are other collection waivers that have not been specified or detailed, such as returns.

“Directly, the main beneficiary of the gasoline incentive policy was Pemex. On the one hand, IEPS tax refunds on fuels are captured, mainly, by Pemex. On the other hand, 31% of excess oil revenues were not transferred to the Mexican Petroleum Fund (FMP). In addition, there are unreported tax expenses in other tax concepts that could have been accredited by Pemex or other taxpayers,” said the CIEP.

The data of the Service tax administration (SAT) showed that, for IEPS, 139.423 million pesos were returned to taxpayers. The main beneficiary of the refunds linked to the fossil fuels category was Pemex.

Another item where the fiscal stimuli could have hit the collection was in VAT since, at a lower price of gasoline, a lower VAT is charged.

“Both fiscal expenses are not reported in detail, so the total fiscal expense that the IEPS tax incentives have in other tax concepts is unknown,” the civil organization asserted.