ICMS Ecológico: a Proteção Ambiental como Ferramenta de Aumento na Arrecadação do Município de Niterói - RJ.

A balanced environment is a right of all, and both society and public authorities must safeguard it. Considering the responsibilities of the Public Administration, this study aims to understand how environmental protection policies can also contribute to increase municipal revenue. The relevance lies in the search to demonstrate that environmental actions conducted by municipalities can improve the quality of life of its citizens and increase tax revenue via the Ecological ICMS; thus, investing in other areas such as infrastructure, public safety, health and education. The Ecological ICMS is one of the criteria for distributing the ICMS share that states must transfer to the municipalities. Regarding the methodology adopted, this is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. In addition to consulting the literature, analyzing laws, documents, and official websites, interviews were conducted to achieve the results. This is a case study of the municipality of Niterói, RJ. The results obtained prove that environmental policies can also be financially advantageous, especially for municipalities that do not receive a large amount when considering the other ICMS distribution criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]