Governors of the South and Southeast ask for changes and mobilize senators against Tax Reform – 11/08/2023 – Market

The governors of the South and Southeast regions asked for changes in the Tax Reform that will be voted on this Wednesday (8) in the Federal Senate. The demand was presented to the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, in a meeting.

“The Tax Reform, in the form in which it came out of the Chamber of Deputies, although there could be some questioning here and there, was more palatable to the states of the South and Southeast”, said the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite (PSDB), who leads the group.

“The way in which Senator Eduardo Braga’s report [MDB-AM] put forward measures that generate special discomfort in the states of the South and Southeast”, he stated.

As an example, Leite cited the maintenance of measures to stimulate the automotive industry in the North and Northeast.

“There are movements that were made within the Senate that we understand make the situation of federative entities much worse and deserve an analysis, to the point that we are talking to the senators in order to not allow the reform to advance in the way that it is before the Senate plenary. Federal”, said Leite.

The governor of Paraná, Ratinho Junior (PSD), maintained the tone of his colleague from Rio Grande do Sul. “As it stands, it deconstructs everything that was built in the Chamber, which was a great advance and brought balance to this Tax Reform among all Brazilian States,” he said.

“Tax Reform has as one of its missions to end or close to ending the fiscal war. This new report increases the fiscal war of the States, divides the regions. This is very bad”, stated Ratinho Junior.

In addition to criticizing the privileges for other regions, the governors also asked for a change in the index for the states’ debt with the Union. Today it is corrected by an IPCA value plus 4% per year.

For milk, the best would be to establish 3% per year, “which is what the Union itself projects for future inflation and, therefore, is technically justified”, he pointed out.

Braga’s report was approved yesterday by the Senate Constitution and Justice Committee and should be analyzed today in the plenary. As it is an amendment to the Constitution, it needs to be approved in two rounds. After that, the points modified by the Senate return to the Chamber of Deputies.