PT will continue to expose its differences with Haddad’s team – 03/04/2023 – Market

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s party will continue to publicly expose its differences with government policies, after the decision to resume charging federal taxes on fuel.

The PT summit openly disagreed with the intentions of Finance Minister Fernando Haddad’s team not to extend the tax relief on alcohol and gasoline. Faced with a more liberal position by the economic team, the assessment is that the portfolio should continue to be the target of public clashes with PT members.

According to party members, the divergence is stimulated by Lula himself, who often says publicly that he wants both the PT and the active social movements.

The assessment is that the party should continue exposing its positions, and petistas minimize the possibility of this causing noise with the government. But the search will be to find a limit in the criticism that does not compromise governance.

Allies of the party president, deputy Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), consider that she took a stand by criticizing the possible return of taxes and won a partial victory after the government adopted an “intermediate solution”, with the partial re-encumbrance of fuels.

Another wing of the party, however, considers that disagreements and debates should take place in a more reserved manner and try to limit the leader’s statements as her own, because there was no deliberation by the party’s executive on the subject.

On Tuesday (28), the government announced the resumption of collection of federal taxes on gasoline and ethanol from March 1, eight months after the rates were zeroed by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in an attempt to overthrow the price at the pumps on the eve of the 2022 election.

The PIS/Cofins rate rose by R$0.47 per liter of gasoline and R$0.02 per liter of ethanol — that is, a still partial charge in relation to the levels charged before the exemption. The Cide (Contribution for Intervention in the Economic Domain) remains zero.

The new rates should be valid for four months. In July, if there are no changes in Congress, full charges of R$ 0.69 per liter of gasoline and R$ 0.24 on ethanol will be resumed.

The return of the tributes was the first major battle faced by Haddad, who found resistance from allies in the party, in the National Congress and even within the government. However, Lula’s top echelon avoided public criticism of the measure.

The divergence ended up expressed by Gleisi, in a post on her social networks. The president of the party criticized Petrobras’ pricing policy and concluded by stating that taxing fuel would be “penalizing the consumer, generating more inflation and failing to fulfill a campaign commitment”.

According to allies, the leader represented not only the position of the acronym, but also the sides of the government that were also in favor of extending the exemption.

Party members say that the deputy has the authority to position herself in the opposite way without generating a crisis for the government, since she does not hold a position and, therefore, has no obligation to reach a consensus behind closed doors.

They argue that it is the role of the PT to demonstrate both solidarity and support for the government and the critical debate of the policies adopted, especially in the economic field.

They recall that his speech at the PT’s 43rd anniversary, in February, made it clear that the priority of his management is the defense of economic growth and job creation. That is why they consider that the leader will continue with her criticism of the government, in particular in the eventual adoption of fiscal austerity measures.

“It’s time to face this market-driven discourse of the rich in this country, that we have a fiscal risk. What risk? Of not paying the debt? It’s a lie. Our debt is all in reais, in a reasonable proportion of GDP. We still have international reserves, left by the PT. They lie, and the Central Bank, an autarchy of the Brazilian State, corroborates the lie, imposing a squeeze of high interest rates on Brazil”, said the party president at the event.

“This has to change. We have an old-fashioned, backward market that has not yet noticed international changes. And we have to stop being afraid of debating economic policy, be it monetary, fiscal or exchange rate and try to accommodate ourselves to what they want or think “, he completed.

Gleisi herself had already started the offensive to pressure the Central Bank, through the Copom (Monetary Policy Committee), to reduce the interest rate. This battle gained even greater proportions with the adhesion of Lula, who hit this key in his speeches and started to directly attack the president of the institution, Roberto Campos Neto.

A minister from the Lula government heard by the Sheet downplays Gleisi’s opposition to the fuel controversy. He claims that the final solution was “built” and it was not a dispute between the leader and Haddad, with winners and losers.

This senior member of the government also says that the PT leader has the right to expose her positions, but points out that it would be better for her to make it clear when it comes to her vision and when it is a deliberate issue within the party.

In the case of fuel, she claims that the government considers it to have been a personal position and rules out that she has acted as a “spokesperson for the discontented”, including members of the Executive who did not want to expose differences publicly.