Haddad wants “concentrated effort” to pass fundraising projects

Minister Fernando Haddad, of Finance, said in the early afternoon of this Thursday (16) that he is counting on the approval of five bills that increase tax collection to close the 2024 budget. And, to this end, he defends an “effort concentrated” with Congress to “give more comfort” to the rapporteur of the budget law, deputy Danilo Forte (União-CE).

The statement came shortly after the deputy himself assured that the text will maintain the forecast of closing the gap in public accounts in 2024, after a meeting with the economic team and the government leader in Congress, senator Randolfe Rodrigues (no party-AP ).

“There are a lot of things to vote on in the Senate, [como]
bet [apostas esportivas], closed-end fund and offshore. In the Chamber, the tax reform has to be completed, and there are two projects that are about to be voted on, which is 1185 – provisional measure for subsidies –, and we are still trying to reach an agreement with the JCP [juros sobre capital próprio]”, said the minister.

The measures are considered important for the government to achieve the necessary revenue to close the 2024 accounts in balance, meeting the goal of zeroing the fiscal deficit. Haddad says that the resources that can be raised with these measures are already in the PLDO forecast for 2024.

According to him, it is necessary to “make an effort at the end of the year”. “Two important projects have already passed in the Chamber, plus the tax reform that passed in the Senate, so we have to make a concentrated effort to follow this perspective”, added the minister.

A little earlier, Danilo Forte mentioned that the minister expressed concern about the approval of these measures to maintain the objective of zeroing the fiscal deficit in public accounts in 2024. “He himself expressed concern about enabling the conclusion of the vote on the matters that are being processed, both the issue of exclusive funds, offshore companies, issues being processed in court”, said the deputy, highlighting that it was on top of “this whole equation” that he was convinced that the zero target will be met.

The possibility of changing the promise to eliminate the deficit in public accounts arose after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said that it would be difficult for the government to achieve balance next year. The speech given at a breakfast with journalists meant that Haddad had to act as a firefighter and say that there was no “discommitment” to the goal.

PLDO’s preliminary report was approved by the Mixed Budget Committee (CMO) last week, and will receive amendments until this Friday (17). Forte said, earlier, that possible amendment proposals can be highlighted for analysis in the plenary, but that, in principle, a review of the fiscal target is expected to occur only “in the future”.

This opens up the possibility that was already being discussed behind the scenes, that a change could be made in March 2024, when the government will carry out the first bimonthly assessment of Budget expenses.

The expectation is that Forte will finalize the text by Monday night (20) and submit it for analysis by Congress on Tuesday (21).