In agreement with the Chamber, Eduardo Braga guarantees maintenance of the Free Zone’s competitiveness

Tax reform

Senator believes that tax reform will be enacted next week

Senator Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM) announced, this Friday (15), the closing of an agreement with the Chamber that will guarantee the competitiveness of the Manaus Free Trade Zone (ZFM) within the scope of tax reform. The expectation is that the tax reform PEC can be enacted next week.

The base text was the result of a series of meetings with the presidents of the two Houses of the National Congress, senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL), deputy Aguinaldo Ribeiro (PP-PB) , and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad.

Eduardo Braga explained that, since PEC 110, authored by senator Roberto Rocha, the objective was to maintain the IPI for the Manaus Free Zone, however, the tax would be extinguished as of PEC 45, which is why there was an initial replacement by the Tax Selective. This new tax would be used to tax products with an impact on the environment and health.

“As products from the Manaus Free Trade Zone have no impact on health and the environment, the idea was to replace the IPI with Cide. But until it was created, the IPI would remain. This made it possible to build the solution that is being approved, we hope, after an agreement between the leaders of the Chamber so that the IPI continues to be the instrument for maintaining the competitiveness of the Manaus Free Trade Zone. Thus, this impasse was resolved,”

completed.

The promulgation of the tax reform PEC, according to Braga, will depend on the final result of the vote on the matter by the Chamber of Deputies and will be evaluated by the president of the National Congress: “Enactment is always the responsibility of the president of Congress. It is his assessment, who can understand whether or not there is a need for a new vote. He will make the assessment at the end of the vote in the Chamber, but I am very optimistic. I think we took a giant step from yesterday to today, a lot of progress has been made and we are hopeful that next week, after the vote in the Chamber, evaluating the text that is approved, we will have the promulgation of the PEC”, he highlighted.

For Braga, the Senate, once again, demonstrated its goodwill in building an agreement with the Chamber of Deputies. He confirmed the deputies’ willingness to maintain the original text in relation to the basic basket, ending the differentiated regime for the extended basic basket proposed by the Senate and which would mean a saving of more than R$20 billion in the global exceptions account. The cashback system will be maintained and regulated by complementary law.

“Cide was going to replace the IPI, by maintaining the IPI we are maintaining the status quo which was what we wanted to maintain the competitiveness of the Manaus Free Zone. We wanted nothing more, nothing less. And that is what is being established”,

he added.

The senator did not want to venture a guess about the final rate of the new Value Added Tax (VAT) that will apply to consumption. “This econometric analysis will have to be carried out by the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Court of Auditors and planning institutes”, he noted.

Thanks

For the president of the Center for Industry of the State of Amazonas (Cieam), Lúcio Flávio de Oliveira, the reform approved by the Chamber brings relief to the industrial sector of Amazonas, which defended the new tax rule. In his assessment, the maintenance of the competitiveness of ZFM, the country’s largest economic development model, is guaranteed.

“Amazonas and the private sector of the Manaus Free Trade Zone owe a special vote of thanks to Senator Eduardo Braga for his impartial and rigorous work in defending Brazil’s rights, without neglecting its state. He was tireless in his work as rapporteur of the tax reform in the Senate and, now, for approval in the Federal Chamber”,

highlighted the president of Cieam.

The president of the Federation of Industries of the State of Amazonas (Fieam) and vice-president of the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), Antônio Silva, the intervention of senator Eduardo Braga in the approval of the tax reform in the Chamber was of fundamental importance in guaranteeing the competitiveness of the industrial hub of Manaus.

“Since the choice of the senator (Eduardo Braga) to rapporteur of the matter in the Senate, we, mainly, had the absolute conviction that we would have the text that preserved our model, given the excellent knowledge that Eduardo had of the matter and the desires of the demands of the Amazonian productive class met by the senator”,

stated the president of Fieam and CNI.

*With information from the Advisory

Know more:

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