Haddad highlights Arthur Lira’s role in Tax Reform – 07/07/2023 – Market

Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance) praised this Friday (7) the performance of the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), in approving the Tax Reform and ruled out that the proposal has “great difficulties” in the Federal Senate .

“I called him [Lira]he was a great leader, he played a fundamental role”, said the minister, who also praised the leadership carried out by Bernard Appy, extraordinary secretary for Tax Reform.

“President Arthur Lira’s conduct was very republican, he listened to everyone. He only put it to the vote when he was sure that he had achieved almost a consensus. Only the extremists who wanted to demarcate [posição]but it was not enough to prevent an absolutely expressive score”, he added.

The base text of the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) was approved in two rounds in the Chamber and now goes to the Senate for consideration. In the last vote, early this Friday, there were 375 votes in favor, 113 against and three abstentions – more than the 308 votes needed to approve a constitutional amendment.

The largest bench in the Chamber, with 99 seats, the PL threatened to “close the issue” against the reform after public pressure from former President Jair Bolsonaro, which would force the unanimous rejection of the proposal, at the risk of punishment, but decided only to guide the contrary vote .

“Almost 400 votes on a subject as delicate as this one, imagine the spiritual effort of each one of us to reach this objective”, said Haddad.

The approved text provides for the merger of PIS, Cofins and IPI (federal taxes), ICMS (state) and ISS (municipal) into one IVA (Value Added Tax).

The system will be dual: it means that a portion of the rate will be administered by the federal government through the CBS (Contribution on Goods and Services), and the other, by states and municipalities through the IBS (Tax on Goods and Services).

A selective tax will also be created on goods and services whose consumption is considered harmful to health (such as cigarettes and alcoholic beverages) or to the environment.

As for the final design, Haddad downplayed the possibility of changes in the Senate on the grounds that Deputy Aguinaldo Ribeiro (PP-PB), rapporteur for the proposal in the Chamber, has already made adjustments to the text to accommodate some of the senators’ demands.

“I have already received calls from senators praising the text of the Chamber, saying that a good part of the senators’ request, the rapporteur of the Chamber has already answered and that, therefore, they are also optimistic regarding the procedure in the Senate, which should happen now in the second semester,” he said.

“They [senadores] are feeling very contemplated by the work that Aguinaldo did, because he already considered PEC 110, which was in the Senate. He has already done a lot of mediation work, in addition to the two PECs 45 and 110, there was a substantial increase in proposals that were accepted. I believe that we will not have great difficulty in the Senate,” he added.

Regarding the other economic agendas on the agenda, Haddad still sees the possibility of progress this Friday, although leaders of the centrão legends have taken for granted the postponement of the proposals that deal with the Carf (Administrative Council of Tax Appeals) and the new fiscal framework for August .

“Let’s see if we vote Carf today [sexta] to release the agenda, to vote on the fiscal framework. And then we will move on to the second phase of our reforms. Microeconomic reforms are also advancing”, said the head of the Treasury.

“Carf needs to be voted on to release the agenda, I don’t know if there’s time [de votar o marco fiscal hoje]but the fiscal milestone is practically approved”, he continued.

Carf’s vote is necessary to enable deliberation on the fiscal framework, a less controversial issue that would put an end to the spending cap. The project on the Council is being processed on an urgent basis and has been blocking the agenda since the last 21st.