Lira discussed Tax Reform with Lula and Bolsonaro – 07/07/2023 – Market

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), said that he spoke with President Lula (PT), former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), with the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, and with the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), on Tax Reform.

The text was approved in the House early this Friday (7), after Lira started voting on Thursday night (6).

The debate was marked by pressure from municipalities and states, and marked the first disagreement between Bolsonaro and the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans).

Lira even emphasized this Friday morning that he praised Tarcísio in the conversation he had with the former president of the Republic.

“I made him an observation that Governor Tarcísio was very correct with the treatment of the PEC [da Reforma Tributária] and that he is a friend that needs to be, above all, preserved”, reported the president of the Chamber.

“I called for him [Bolsonaro]rightly stating, without making any value judgments, or asking for a position, that this reform was born in his government, was carried out within the National Congress and that it was from Brazil, but nothing more than that, we talked quickly”, he said.

Tarcísio’s support is seen by allies of the government and by the opposition as fundamental for the approval of the Reform.

The governor of São Paulo, since Sunday (2), has mobilized parliamentarians from his party and from the state and managed to make changes to the text that benefited him, expanding the power of the Southeast region within the Federative Council.

He and Bolsonaro even publicly disagreed during a PL event in which the former minister was heavily criticized.

At the meeting, Tarcísio argued that the right could not lose the narrative of being in favor of tax reform. “Why, if not, does the reform end up being approved and who approved it?”, he stated.

Bolsonaro interrupted the governor’s speech.

“Guys. The big question is to build a good text”, said Tarcísio. Bolsonaro took another microphone without prior notice and said that “if the PL is united, it does not approve of anything” — receiving applause from his supporters.

The text was approved at dawn, with 382 favorable votes, broad support from the Republicans of Tarcísio and also with the endorsement of 20 names from the PL of Jair Bolsonaro.

Arthur Lira said that, after the result, he received thanks from Lula, Haddad and Pacheco —”a connection was not lacking”.

“He [Pacheco] sent a message yesterday congratulating and I said ‘she’ll be there soon’. We hope, yes, that the Senate can discuss, make its legislative path, can vote and with modifications, which I believe will have, return to the Chamber, and in the meantime, the conversations are already being fine-tuned so that a House with the another, with a text in common, can build a consensus”, he said.

Lira also argued that the Senate will be able to make a more thorough analysis of the text compared to that of the Chamber, which needs to meet many different interests due to its more plural composition.

He also defended that both the approval of the Reform and the other economic agendas being discussed in Congress —Carf and the new fiscal framework— may have an influence on the next Copom meeting and consequently on the interest rate, which has been criticized by the government and by parliamentarians for being high.

But Lira avoided nailing when these last themes will be considered by the Chamber and stated that he will meet with leaders to decide whether this will happen this Friday, next week (remotely) or just in August.

“If it’s as quick as possible, the better”, said the deputy from Alagoas.

Minister Alexandre Padilha (SRI) said, this Friday, that there is agreement with the Carf text, the food acquisition program (which is also on the agenda for the week) and the fiscal framework in the Chamber.

According to the minister, Lira told him and Lula, in a call this Friday morning, that the issues are on the agenda for the day. “Our expectation is that the three points can still be voted on today”, he told journalists, at the Planalto Palace, emphasizing that the proposals have a “very important role”.

“The federal government agrees on the merits of the three points, it agrees on the text presented in the Carf report, on the PAA [programa de alimentos]regarding the Fiscal Framework, the government advised in favor of the excellent work done in the Senate, and we are going to discuss with leaders the importance of approving these three items today”, he said.