ANP Suspends GLP Reform to Redirect Staff Toward Fuel Price Oversight

Overview

• The ANP board voted unanimously on Friday, June 12 to suspend parts of its 2025–2026 regulatory agenda, including the proposed GLP (cooking‑gas) market reform and a pilot for ‘instalação avançada de envase’.
• The agency said it will reallocate personnel to intensify price inspections and to operationalize the government’s subsidy program, projecting about 3,000 inspections for July–September after conducting roughly 2,111 checks from March 9 to June 3.
• Proposals that are now paused would have allowed other distributors to fill 13kg cylinders, created smaller licensed filling sites with electronic serial‑number tracking, and in some drafts discussed remote fractional refilling; the ANP had planned strict capital and traceability requirements for pilots.
• Industry groups, the Ministry of Mines and Energy and security experts warned that loosening rules on refilling and visible brand marks could raise risks of fraud, tax evasion and criminal infiltration, citing cases in Mexico, Ecuador and Paraguay.
• The decision reflects capacity limits at the regulator — described internally as a “short blanket” after years of budget cuts — and sits against Law 15.348/2026, which requires sealed full cylinders and blocks fractional sale, a legal constraint that shapes any future reforms.