Government plans to enact the tax reform by December without increasing the rate

Minister Simone Tebet, of Planning and Budget, said this Monday morning (21st) that the government hopes to get the enactment of the tax reform on consumption by Congress by the end of this year. According to her, the expectation is that the general rate for the population will not increase, even with the number of exceptions included in the proposal.

“I am aware and convinced that we will approve this reform by October. There is a Senate commitment to that effect. Then it’s back to Chamber for some tweaking. We have all the conditions to enact the reform by December 31 of this year”, he said at an event at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in a record of the Power 360.

According to the minister, if new exceptions are included in the proposal, the rate of new taxes should increase. The text under discussion proposes to replace five taxes from the three spheres of power in a national VAT divided into a federal one and a state and municipal one.

“Although one or another sector may have some impact in relation to its rate, the important thing is that the population in general will not have an increase in the rate”, he added.

The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), called a meeting with the 27 Brazilian governors for a meeting next week to discuss the proposed tax reform. The processing of the project is considered worrying for them, due to the definition of how the ICMS will be collected and passed on to the states and the Federal District.

At the same FGV event, Pacheco confirmed that the proposal is expected to be approved by the Senate in October. According to him, this will be the “absolute priority” of the House in the coming weeks to approve as much of the proposal as possible.

“We have this end of August, the whole of September as an absolute priority for the Senate to be able to clarify all doubts, resolve all impasses and dilemmas so that we can, in the month of October, assess the best possible tax reform in plenary . What is being asked is a vote of confidence from institutions, governors, mayors, society in general, towards the National Congress”, he said.

Over the next few weeks, the Constitution and Justice Commission will hold a series of eight public hearings on tax reform. The first, this Tuesday (22), will have the participation of specialists in the subject to analyze the main concepts of the proposal.

Among those who will participate are the extraordinary secretary of tax reform at the Ministry of Finance, Bernard Appy; the president of the Independent Fiscal Institution (IFI), Marcus Pestana; and the Secretary for Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies and Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Planning and Budget, Sérgio Pinheiro Firpo.