Brazil finance minister signals Petrobras will cut fuel prices again in July

BRASILIA, May 17 (Reuters) - Brazil Finance Minister Fernando Haddad indicated on Wednesday that state-run oil company Petrobras will once again reduce gasoline prices in July when a tax on oil exports expires.

Speaking at a hearing in the Lower House, Haddad said: "We did not lower prices as much as we could precisely because we are waiting for July 1st, when the export tax ends and the tax resumption cycle (on fuels) ends."

Petrobras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Haddad's remarks come after Petrobras announced a nearly 13% decrease in gasoline and diesel prices on Tuesday, following the introduction of a new pricing policy that scraps a so-called fuel import parity that more closely aligned prices at the pump with the oil market and exchange rates.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government partially reinstated federal taxes on gasoline and ethanol in March after a broad exemption initiated last year by former President Jair Bolsonaro, who reduced prices ahead of the election he narrowly lost to Lula.

To ensure the same revenue that would be obtained with a full reinstatement, the government also imposed a tax on exported crude oil for four months, ending in June.

Haddad had previously said that after this period, the taxation on oil exports would end, and fuel taxes would be fully resumed.

The government maintained the tax exemption on diesel until the end of the year, but Haddad also stressed on Wednesday that the same strategy would be employed by Petrobras with the product, aiming to avoid impacting consumer prices.

"It will happen with diesel at the end of the year. We have already left some room to accommodate the (tax) resumption," he said. (Reporting by Marcela Ayres Editing by Bill Berkrot)