Mayors and deputies criticize government for project to reinstate municipal payrolls

Deputies and city hall representatives criticized this Tuesday (16) the government’s bill that provides for the gradual reduction of the municipalities’ payroll from the current 8% to, again, 20% by 2027. The relief intended by the economic team through a provisional measure expired at the beginning of the month without being voted on by the Senate.

Taxation has been the subject of conflict between the government and Congress since last year, when parliamentarians included municipalities in the project that extended payroll tax relief for 17 sectors of the economy until 2027. The president of the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), Paulo Ziulkoski says that municipalities will have an estimated impact of R$6.3 billion this year if the current bill in progress is approved.

“We understand that it is not fair to the municipalities, that it is not a company, but that it works for the citizen and that it has taken over more than 200 federal government programs. Today there are 6.7 million city hall employees in Brazil, where 2.5 million are in the Own Regime and the rest in the General Pension Regime [RGPS e RPPS]”, he said.

During the general commission, deputy Gilson Daniel (Podemos-ES) defended the maintenance of the reduced rate to benefit the vast majority of city halls. According to the proposal approved by Congress and which remains in force, the payroll tax relief benefits around 5,400 municipalities with up to 156,200 inhabitants.

The deputy states that more than 4 thousand municipalities “have some debt with the general social security regime”, and that the general debt stock is today approaching R$182 billion. “The basic needs of citizens are in states and municipalities and it is in these places that resources need to be, and reach the population. We cannot give up what has already been achieved”, he pointed out.

The executive secretary of the National Front of Mayors (FNP), Gilberto Perre, stated that the text of the project is a mistake and highlighted the need to “respect the spaces of federative agreement”.

Representative Mauro Benevides Filho (PDT-CE) indicated that the version of the project must still undergo changes before voting in the Plenary, especially in relation to the percentage of the municipalities’ social security contributions. “The government wants 20%, the CNM has already spoken of 14%, here in the Chamber some are estimating 17%”, he added.