Parliamentarians ask Pacheco to return the MP for the reinstatement – 12/29/2023 – Market

The FPE (Parliamentary Entrepreneurship Front), formed by 205 deputies and 46 senators, asked the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), to return to the government the MP (provisional measure) that provides for the gradual reimbursement of the payroll payments.

The MP was published this Friday (29) in the Official Gazette of the Union. Announced by Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance) on Thursday (28), the proposal provoked a reaction from parliamentarians.

One of the complaints is around the instrument used by the government, a provisional measure, which provides for the repeal of the law that was approved by Congress on payroll tax relief, and whose effects begin from April 1st.

The initiative was seen as an attempt by Haddad to impose his agenda on parliamentarians and classified as an affront since Congress itself overturned President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) veto of the payroll tax exemption project.

“This provisional measure to exempt the payroll issued by the government is an affront to the Legislative power. This matter was voted on twice this year in the House. There was a veto. The veto was overturned in both Houses by a large majority, showing the legislative will which represents the population of this country”, stated in a statement the president of the FPE, deputy Joaquim Passarinho (PL-PA).

The parliamentarian states that, if Haddad’s measure goes ahead, the 17 sectors of the economy that employ the most in the country will suffer an increase in tax burden.

The FPE contests the Executive’s arguments to prepare the measure and says that, according to studies using data from the General Register of Employed and Unemployed Persons (Caged), between 2018 and 2022, the sectors that had payroll tax relief increased by 15.5% number of jobs, while those that were re-encumbered grew by 6.6%.

The effects of the MP begin to take effect on April 1, 2024, until when the government intends to convince parliamentarians to approve it. Until then, the payroll tax relief continues to be valid for 17 benefited sectors of the economy.

Among them is communication, which includes Grupo Folha, the company that publishes the Sheet. Footwear, call center, clothing and clothing, civil construction, construction companies and infrastructure works, among others, are also covered.

The measure announced by Haddad this week foresees the creation of two groups of companies benefiting from reduced rates on the first minimum wage.

The employer contribution will be 10% for the first group, which includes transport, radio, television and information technology activities.

For the second group, which includes activities in the publishing market, the textile, leather and footwear industries, as well as construction companies and infrastructure works, taxation will be 15% in the range of up to one minimum wage for their employees. . The standard rate of 20% will be applied to the portion exceeding this amount.

By 2027, there will be a gradual recomposition of rates on the first minimum wage, differently for each group.

When contacted to find out if he would return the MP, the president of the Senate did not respond.

If Pacheco decides to return the provisional measure to the government, the initiative would not be unprecedented. In 2015, the then president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), reduced the tax benefit of payroll tax relief to 56 segments of the economy.

The payroll tax relief benefit was created in 2011, during the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government, and has had successive extensions.

Senator Efraim Filho (União Brasil-PB), who was the author of the payroll tax relief project in the House, and the members of the FPE defend that the issue be discussed through a bill, giving the possibility of being debated in Congress .

“It’s an attempt to impose an agenda through a provisional measure on a matter for which the government did not have enough votes in the plenary. That’s not the case,” he said.

“If the government wants to dialogue with alternative proposals, the path would be a bill, not a provisional measure, because it is an imposition of an agenda”, he continued.

With the MP, as of April 1, 2024, the provision inserted by the Senate that provides tax benefits for city halls of municipalities with up to 142 thousand inhabitants will also cease to be valid.

The measure generated a reaction from the CNM (National Confederation of Municipalities), which criticized the government’s decision to revoke the benefit without presenting alternatives, as it did in relation to the 17 sectors benefiting from the payroll tax exemption.

In a statement, the entity said that it is studying measures to act in favor of the municipalities and that it will pressure the Lula government for answers.

“Every effort will be made so that the Union actually presents a solution. For the CNM, the suspension, on the last working day of the year, of a topic widely debated and validated by the National Congress is also questionable, negatively surprising the managers local,” he said.

For the president of the CNM, Paulo Ziulkoski, the Lula government’s decision burdens municipal public accounts and reinforces the financial crisis. “The crisis is structural. It’s not the city’s fault, it’s the Brazilian citizen’s, who suffers from all the disarray in recent times due to the government’s misguided policies,” he stated.