Lira tariff discussion of tax reform for this Wednesday and vote on Thursday

The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), scheduled for this Wednesday afternoon (5) the start of discussions on the tax reform project in the plenary of the house, and intends to vote on the text in the first round on Thursday night (6).

The information was confirmed shortly after a long meeting with party leaders in the morning, in which he heard the politicians’ demands along with criticisms and suggestions from governors.

“It is important to round up some texts yet, we are finalizing the issue of the federative council which, in my view, has to be as technical as possible, with the least possible interference with autonomy. It has to be the collector and the immediate transferor of who is entitled to all the taxes that will be unified”, he said in an interview with GloboNews.

Also according to Lira, the governors of the South and Southeast, who formed a block to discuss the terms of the reform, held a purposeful meeting on Tuesday (4), and those of the North, Northeast and Midwest are already reaching a consensus on the federative council formation project.

“The leaders went out to collect the votes with their deputies, hold the last conversations”, completed the president of the Chamber.

While meeting with party leaders, Minister Fernando Haddad, of Finance, received the governors of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), and of Amazonas, Wilson Lima (União Brasil), to settle specific demands of the states.

Tarcísio said that he supports the text of the project “in 95%”, just missing the issue of the federative council for the transfer of taxes that will be collected with the creation of the Value Added Tax (VAT), which should have a dual charge, or that is, with a collection for the Union and another for states and municipalities.

The governor of Amazonas, on the other hand, stressed that he will not accept any change in the taxation regime of the Manaus Free Zone, which could lose revenue with the end of taxes such as ICMS and IPI, mainly.

A little earlier, the National Front of Mayors criticized the course of the project, which does not establish what the VAT collection rate will be or the percentages of tax transfers to states and municipalities. City halls, in particular, claim that it is not clear who will define the values, whether the government or the state legislative assemblies, and that this would undermine the autonomy guaranteed by the Constitution.