Haddad says tax reform should be discussed in Congress again

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, said this Monday (30th) that the National Congress should return to debate on the tax reform after the holding of elections for the presidencies of the Senate and the Federal Chamber.

For the minister, the only reason the tax reform was not approved last year was the insistence on resuming the Provisional Contribution on Financial Transactions (CPMF).

According to the minister, the governors have also expressed themselves in favor of voting on the reform. “All the governors expressed themselves, even formally and publicly, in favor of voting on the reform, which was not voted on last year because the contribution agenda was still insisted on. This ended up creating obstacles to the approval of the reform”, he said..

According to Haddad, the tax reform will be discussed in two stages. The first of them should be done in the first half of this year. “We don’t want to mess with Simples in this first stage. I imagine that, in the second half, with everything going well in the first half, we will be able to address other issues.”

Haddad also highlighted that the new government will be of “high intensity” and that it will prioritize the fiscal, regulatory and credit agendas in the coming months. “I see a huge opportunity. First, on the fiscal agenda, which is the approval of the tax reform and the new fiscal framework that will pacify Brazil in front delicate. We have to get out of the very short-term agenda,” she said.

Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Gabriel Galipolo, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, and the President of FIESP, Josué Christiano Gomes da Silva, participate in a meeting at the headquarters of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil

credit schedule

On the credit agenda, the minister said that he had spoken, this morning, with the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, and that they intend to “disclose actions”. “We have a lot to do with regard to credit in Brazil. We are going to unpack all the initiatives of the Central Bank that were paralyzed within the Executive.”

To journalists, the minister said he still did not know what those actions would be. “What I pledged to him [presidente do BC] is that in 15 days we will have all the measures in hand and we will send them to the National Congress, after an internal evaluation by the Ministry of Finance. These are measures that will improve the business environment in Brazil. The idea is that, in March, we will forward this to the Civil House.”

On the regulatory issue, the minister highlighted that Brazil has an opportunity to reindustrialize itself based on clean energy.

“We have the opportunity to be one of the largest producers of clean energy in the world. We have the opportunity to reindustrialize based on this matrix. The whole world is in search of clean energy. Industries are choosing locations based on clean energy. And Brazil is the country that is best positioned to produce wind, solar, biomass, whatever is available. And this can be a strong component of attracting foreign investment in Brazil and reindustrializing national capital. I believe that climate change, the climate crisis, can offer us a very interesting development path”, he highlighted.

pix

During the meeting with Fiesp’s board, which lasted about two hours, the minister also said that the Central Bank is considering offering Pix a new function. “In the middle of this year, Pix will become a credit instrument. This will make credit a lot cheaper in Brazil. This is on BC’s agenda and will be released later this year.”

Mercosur

To Fiesp directors, the minister also defended the strengthening of Mercosur as a way of improving the region’s negotiation capacity with other countries and blocs in the world. For the minister, it would be important to integrate other countries into the bloc, such as Bolivia, and also move towards a free trade zone.

“What I defend is the strengthening of Mercosur. I think that, within Mercosur, we should have a free trade zone. We must transform it into an economic bloc and negotiate as a bloc with China, the European Union, the United States and anyone else. The more we thicken the bloc, the greater our ability to negotiate good trade agreements with the world will be,” said Haddad.

The minister was invited to participate in the meeting with the Fiesp board at a time when the São Paulo federation is facing an internal problem, which almost caused the departure of its president Josué Gomes.

Gomes assumed the presidency of Fiesp last year, replacing Paulo Skaf, who had been in charge for 17 years. Despite the fact that the election of the current president of Fiesp was supported by Skaf, the two expressed divergent positions in the presidential elections of 2022. In August, Fiesp, already under the command of Josué Gomes, articulated a letter in defense of democracy, together with other representations of business, intellectuals and civil society organizations. Skaf was a supporter of Jair Bolsonaro.

Last week, however, they released a joint note saying they had worked around the disagreements. Today, Skaf was invited to sit at the table alongside Josué Gomes and minister Fernando Haddad.

Questioned about this problem by journalists, the minister only replied that he does not have “details about the internal problem that Fiesp has experienced”.

* With information from Agência Brasil

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