Accelerating the vote on tax reform hurts the Constitution, says Ives Gandra

The proposal for tax reform on consumption, which should go to the vote this Thursday (6) in the Chamber, raises concerns for tax specialist Ives Gandra da Silva Martins. According to him, more calm is needed for the approval of the set of measures, because it is something new.

He says he is not against the reform, but rather against accelerating its approval, in a week, without going through the procedures required for a constitutional amendment.

“It is a new text. It is neither PEC 45 nor PEC 110. It is a text that takes something from PEC 110, takes something from PEC 45 and creates a series of new discussions that ultimately were not debated in the Constitution and Justice Commissions (CCJ), in Special Commission and didn’t even go through the 40 regimental sessions, which is what the Federal Constitution requires for the approval of constitutional amendments”, he says.

Gandra points out that, if approved the way it is proposed, the reform will weaken the federation. “To simplify things, we’re going to complicate things. We should dry out the current system. What worries us the most is the weakening of the federation. The loss of strength of the federation. What characterizes a federation is its political, administrative and financial autonomy. Without these three autonomies, there is no independence from a federative entity”.

The jurist analyzes that, when financial autonomy is subject to a steering committee (which will be created), even if the states participate, it no longer has financial autonomy. “So every state and every county becomes dependent on what the steering committee is going to say.”

He also claims that the project violates the internal regulations of the National Congress, the Chamber and the Senate, because, for a constitutional amendment to be approved, it needs to pass through the CCJ, a special commission and 40 sessions of the Legislative House that will approve it. or not.

The tax expert warns that there are no analyzes and projections of future impacts on the economy of each of the 5,570 municipalities, in the 26 states and in the Federal District. “We all want tax simplification, but that we have it after a broad discussion, and not without what the internal rules of the House, Senate and Congress require”, he says.