Senator criticizes economic policy and says the government does not want to cut spending

The president of the Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee (CAE), Vanderlan Cardoso (PSD-GO), criticized the progress of economic policy and said that the Lula government does not want to cut spending, but wants to increase tax revenue. The statement was made during an interview given to Power360this Friday (15).

“The signs within President Lula’s government are that he does not have this desire [de cortar gastos]. The will is more to collect. So much so that we delivered the tax reform, it was approved, now we are going to start looking at the Complementary Laws, but during this period there were only tax increases. Increasing revenue just by increasing taxes is not fair, nor is it normal. The government needs to do its homework and also reduce spending”, said the senator.

In the parliamentarian’s assessment, the tax reform should be fully regulated in 2024, even with the pace of Congress slowing down in the second half of the year due to municipal elections.

The senator also highlighted the drop in industrial production, recorded at the beginning of this year, as a consequence of the legal uncertainty created by decisions taken by the government in relation to economic policy last year.

“We are seeing it, it was already reported that in January industrial production fell and it had been increasing. Why is there a drop? Because many investors, especially in those states where there is a subsidy (which is a tax incentive), many businesspeople have already stopped investing or are waiting longer to see what the impact will be, but many sectors have already seen an increase due to this subsidy issue and some they are taking legal action… So, each company is looking for the best way to get out of this increase, which is huge. This creates legal uncertainty, which is not good for the country. On the other hand, we are seeing states approving increases in ICMS based on tax reform […] ICMS increased, federal tax increased, what happened? Increase in inflation”, said the senator.