Group coordinator wants to vote on tax reform in the House plenary in May – 03/01/2023 – Market

Deputy Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG), coordinator of the working group in the Chamber that discusses the tax reform, wants the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) to be voted by the plenary in May, shortly after the delivery of the final report by the Deputy Aguinaldo Ribeiro (PP-PB).

Lopes and Ribeiro spoke at the end of the meeting of the group created to discuss changes in the tax system. According to the schedule released this Wednesday (1st), the opinion must be delivered on May 16, when the work of the collegiate is expected to be concluded.

Asked about the possibility of taking the text straight to plenary after the end of the WG, Lopes defended the idea.

“I think that the day we conclude the work on the WG, we hold a week of seminar with the group of deputies and deputies from all the benches and states, I think that the following week this report has to go to the plenary”, he said. “I think it’s important to gain strength and we don’t lose mobilization for its approval.”

The final text must be constructed from two PECs: 45, by Deputy Baleia Rossi (MDB-SP), which replaces five current taxes (PIS, Cofins, IPI, ICMS and ISS) by a Tax on Goods and Services (IBS ); and 110, from the Senate, which proposes a merger of taxes —one of the main differences in relation to 45 is that the simplification results in two taxes, not one.

In the interview, Ribeiro, who will also be the plenary’s rapporteur, defended that a senator accompany the discussions of the working group to speed up the vote in the Senate. “This is going to be a conversation between [o presidente da Câmara, Arthur] lyre and [o presidente do Senado, Rodrigo] Pacheco,” he said.

“I defend that the Senate can follow. We even had a joint commission in which we analyzed together —25 senators and 25 deputies— the two PECs, PEC 110 and PEC 45. I think that participation would be very healthy, as well as we did in the Social Security reform, the follow-up that, without a doubt, streamlined the text, including for appreciation in the Senate itself.”

Tax reform is one of the priorities of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the first semester in Congress. At the working group meeting, Ribeiro spoke about the emphasis given by the government to the issue.

“We have a government guiding an issue like this, which is extremely important in our country. The government guiding and participating in this debate, contributing, because the government will be active, this already manifested by Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance)”, he said.

“I am sure that his speech also represents the thinking of the minister [Alexandre] padilha [Relações Institucionais]of all those who compose it, and of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva himself, who has also placed tax reform as a fundamental assumption so that we can promote wealth distribution in our country.”

According to the published schedule, the extraordinary secretary for tax reform, Bernard Appy, will speak about PEC 45 next Tuesday (7). The following day, the rapporteur for PEC 110 in the Senate, former Senator Roberto Rocha, will speak about the text.