Payroll repayment will be suspended in 2024, says Randolfe

The government leader in Congress, senator Randolfe Rodrigues (no party-AP), stated this Monday (19) that the payroll tax increase will be suspended in 2024. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) must beat the hammer on the topic this week, after meeting with the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad. The expectation is that the government will forward to the Legislature a bill with criteria for the gradual re-encumbrance of the payroll of 17 sectors of the economy from 2025. As a result, the proposal would be removed from provisional measure (MP) 1,202, presented at the end last year.

“We have advanced in an understanding about the issues related to exemption being forwarded by bill on an urgent basis. The president must call all of us, he must also call Minister Haddad this week to put the hammer down on this issue and forward the bill on an urgent basis regarding the re-encumbrance”, the government leader told journalists.

According to Randolfe, the other topics foreseen will be maintained in the MP. “It is almost natural that with the MP withdrawing the exemption from MP 1,202 and with the forwarding of a bill on an urgent basis, the exemption, in practice, is suspended from being inaugurated, by previous decision of Congress, already in this year of 2024”, he highlighted. Earlier, Randolfe met with Haddad and the government leader in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), to discuss the economic agenda.

On December 14, Congress overturned Lula’s veto and validated the bill that extended the exemption until 2027. With the parliamentarians’ decision, the gradual increase will not come into force on April 1, as foreseen in the MP. Now, the government needs to define the fiscal cost of maintaining the exemption. The author of the extension of the payroll tax exemption, senator Efraim Filho (União-PB), has already declared that Congress must maintain the tax benefit regardless of the bill or the MP.

The senator also highlighted that the gradual end of the Emergency Events Sector Resumption Program (Perse) must be maintained in the provisional measure. He stated that the initiative is necessary for the government to achieve the zero deficit target set for 2024. “The government maintains the same line it has previously maintained of pursuing zero deficit and this will all depend a lot on these accounts that I will close Hence the importance of provisional measure 1,202”, said Randolfe.