The presidents of the House, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), and Senate, David Alcolumbre (Union-AP), took advantage of the meeting held on Sunday with Finance Minister Fernando Haddad to express his dissatisfaction because Congress was not previously informed about the decree that increased by the Tax on Financial Operations (IOF), announced in May.
According to gifts, the theme was one of the first guidelines of the meeting, but was approached without a tone of confrontation. The speech of the heads of the two houses stressed the importance of the meeting and the need for the Minister of Finance to maintain a constant dialogue with the Legislature.
In response, Haddad argued that it is not the tradition of any government previously to communicate Congress on the content of decrees. The complaints had been previously made to the government, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva himself spoke out on the matter last week.
“No one can be a government leader and the government send something without talking to them. It’s a political practice we have to learn. Every time we take action without talking to people, we can make mistakes,” said the president.
Haddad, Motta, and Alcolumbre met with leaders of the government base in the House and Senate to close an agreement that serves as an alternative to increasing IOF. Among the proposals are the reformulation of taxes on financial investments and the increase in taxation for fintechs.
At another point in the meeting, Deputy Pedro Paulo (PSD-RJ) complained that almost all agreed measures focused on increasing the collection, not the cutting of expenses.
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Despite the complaints, parliamentarians claim that there was no tension in the relationship between Motta, Alcolumbre and Haddad, and that the meeting fulfilled the main objective of closing an agreement to avoid the discharge of IOF.
Under the agreement, the government has pledged to issue a new decree to reduce the originally foreseen increase. Part of the loss of revenue should be compensated with increasing taxation for companies that explore online games, the BETS calls, from 12% to 18%, and the collection of tax securities taxes that are now exempt today.
The forecast of the government is that, with the reduction in current IOF rates, the collection is about a third of the initially foreseen R $ 20 billion. Most of the measures will be implemented through a Provisional Measure (MP). There is still no estimate of collection for these measures.
