PT says after meeting with Haddad that it will give up taxing millionaires more, but not billionaires – 08/08/2023 – Market

The leader of the PT in the Chamber, Zeca Dirceu (PT-PR), said this Tuesday (8) after a meeting of the party’s parliamentarians with Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance) that the party in Congress gives up raising the tax burden on the millionaires – making a historic flag of the acronym more flexible. According to him, however, the caucus disagrees with maintaining the current rules for billionaires.

“We even give up taxing the rich. The bench says that they even give up taxing millionaires. What doesn’t work is for a country like Brazil, with so much inequality, to continue without taxing even billionaires. I think this is in tune with what the government thinks”, said Dirceu after the meeting in front of the ministry’s headquarters.

The declarations are given after the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), demonstrated opposition to the sending, by the government, of the proposal of taxation of the super-rich. For Lira, the proposal may hinder the processing of the Tax Reform on consumption.

“I couldn’t express myself publicly, nor talk more specifically with Minister Haddad, but I think it’s politically a big risk for you to open several flanks of discussion”, said Lira in July.

“While you are discussing the Tax Reform in the Senate, if you come with this other bias now, before the finalization, you can embolden this midfielder”, said the president of the Chamber. For the deputy, “one thing is to agree with the merit, another thing is to agree with the timing”.

Later, Haddad said he would send the project. “Got to go in August [taxação dos super-ricos] Why do you have to follow [projeto de] Budget”, stated the minister. “I cannot send the Budget without these measures forwarded to Congress”, he said.

The government needs to find new revenues in order to pursue the central target of zero deficit next year. Achieving this result requires a significant effort on the revenue side, since the new fiscal framework foresees expenses growing above inflation next year — and public accounts are already in the red this year.

Haddad’s conversation this Tuesday brought together several PT parliamentarians and, according to Dirceu, the minister asked his supporters for special attention precisely to measures that increase tax collection. The deputy pointed out that the initiatives do not target the productive sector, but tax evaders.

Dirceu added that, if the collection measures proposed by the government do not advance, Congress will be left with the responsibility of redoing a Budget that, in his view, is already lean.