This article has as its theme the applicability of the principle of selectivity for the collection of the Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS), in relation to fuels. The main objective of the study is to analyze the applicability of the principle of selectivity through considerations about the essentiality of fuels, especially gasoline. As specific objectives, it is proposed to verify, through bibliographic research, the elements of the ICMS incidence hypothesis, the concept of the principle of selectivity and its application in relation to ICMS, the main ICMS norms related to selectivity, data on expenditures with fuel for active students of the 2022 academic year in the Accounting Sciences course at Faculdades Integradas de Taquara (Faccat) and the amount that will generate the difference in spending with the reduced rates. As for the nature, it is a bibliographical, descriptive and exploratory research, with a quantitative approach. To understand how the essentiality of ICMS is relevant for fuels, a questionnaire with 9 questions was applied, with alternatives, where the expenses versus the income of the interviewees were analyzed, to have the percentage of fuel that each interviewee spends per month. It can be seen that most people do not realize how much of their monthly salary they spend on gasoline, since they do not control their expenses. If the ICMS rate stays at 17%, the percentage of fuel expenditures would be lower, allowing people to have more resources to spend on food, health and leisure, for example.