Study of the correlation between Ecological ICMS and environmental political-administrative structure in brazilian municipalities

Abstract

The Ecological ICMS – Tax on circulation of goods and services - (ICMS-E) is an environmental policy instrument currently implemented in 16 Brazilian states. Studies argue its effectiveness in encouraging the creation of protected areas, improvement of actions aimed at environmental protection and financial compensation capacity for municipalities that have economic limitations to explore all of its area. However, a little discussed issue is the ability to encourage and enable the creation of specific political and administrative structure for the environment. Thus, this work shows the importance of this structure at the municipal level and presents the study of the correlation between Ecological ICMS (ICMS-E) and political-administrative structure related to the environment in Brazilian municipalities. We used data from the Survey of Basic Municipal Information (MUNIC) 2013, measured by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) to identify the correlation between ICMS-E and the existence of public agencies and instruments related to environmental preservation. The results indicate that the ICMS-E influenced municipalities to integrate Watershed Committees, have Municipal Environmental Council, Municipal Environmental Fund, Municipal Secretary of Environment and create specific legislation to deal with environmental issues.