Gleisi defends Lula’s veto and says that job creation has not been proven

The national president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, defended the decision of President Luiz Inácio Lula Silva (PT) to fully veto the bill that would extend the payroll exemption for 17 sectors of the economy until the end of 2027, taken on the night on Thursday (23) and published in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU) this Friday (24).

The PT leader stated that the measure, in force for 12 years, is costly to the public coffers and has not been proven to have actually created jobs since it was implemented. For Gleisi Hoffmann, those who defend tax relief are “liberal” only in relation to government funds.

“The market, businesspeople, media, presidents of the Chamber and Senate demand zero deficit in government accounts. But when President Lula vetoes the exemption that Congress gave to certain sectors, it seems like the world is going to end. They are liberal only with the executive’s funds, which serve the population. When it comes to the tax they must pay, this liberalism ends,” he said in a message on social media this Friday morning (24).

According to her, Lula and Minister Fernando Haddad, of Finance, “did well not extend a benefit that costs 25 billion and without any proof that it created jobs”.

The measure, however, contradicts what the PT bench in the Chamber advised on the day of the vote, which approved the extension of payroll tax relief by 430 votes to 17.

The rapporteur of the proposal, senator Efraim Filho (União-PB), said this Friday (24) that congressmen are already working to overturn the veto, together with representatives of the productive sector and municipalities, who would also benefit from the measure. According to him, if maintained, the veto could result in the dismissal of more than 600,000 workers.

In addition to the senator, three trade unions and several entities in the productive sector criticized Lula’s decision to veto the extension of the payroll tax exemption.

The analysis of the veto should be discussed in the next session of Congress, which does not yet have a scheduled date, and be discussed before the 2024 Budget.