The economic program of (Novo)’s candidacy for the Presidency provides for hourly paid working hours, with no limit, in addition to the privatization of all companies, including the crown jewels, such as Banco do Brasil and Caixa Econômica Federal.
It also includes a “permanent” and the expansion of the Simples ceiling for companies.
The programmatic document should be launched on April 16 at an event in São Paulo. The coordination of the economic part is in charge of businessman Carlos da Costa, who was special secretary for Productivity in the management of the Ministry of , in the government of (PL).
“We have a mantra: make Brazilians prosper and make money count again”, says Costa to the Panel. “Brazilians are working, but they are not prospering, they are not able to invest. The expenses are not in their pockets”, he adds.
He says that the main axis is to reduce “”, the name given to the burden of taxes and regulations that weigh on the productive sector.
“Companies have difficulty employing qualified labor, the cost of capital is exorbitant, and the economy is getting worse. Starting a business has become very difficult,” says the coordinator.
One of the proposals is to double the Simples ceiling, which currently applies to companies with revenues of up to R$4.8 million per year. This will allow more companies to join the system.
Another priority is to make a radical reduction in government spending, including ministries. “We will not spare the bureaucrats’ crown jewels.”
The project also plans to “free the government worker”. At this point, the idea of hourly working hours comes into play, which goes in the opposite direction to regulatory proposals, such as the end of .
“Today the government keeps a large part of what the worker produces. More and more Brazilians are being pushed into informality. With hourly pay, everyone works as much as they want. This would be accompanied by a total exemption from the payroll”, he states.
To help reduce public debt, there would be the total privatization of state-owned companies, something that Guedes himself promised in the 2018 election, but was unable to fulfill.
The mistake, says Costa, was not taking advantage of the political bonus at the beginning of the mandate to take the most controversial measures. “We learned that this kind of thing has to be done at the beginning of the government. When we entered, we didn’t know how to govern”, he says.
In the case of Social Security, the idea is to establish a permanent rule so that the number of Brazilians who contribute to support retirees remains permanent.
“With Brazilians living longer, Social Security will always have to adjust. This needs to be done so as not to have to reform every 5 or 10 years.”
Finally, Zema’s program will defend total trade opening to the rest of the world, with new agreements, always within the scope of Mercosur.
A point that should not be mentioned directly is the decoupling of adjustments to the minimum wage and Social Security, always defended by liberal economists to reduce fiscal spending.
For Costa, the issue is politically delicate and will end up being naturally overcome, if the other measures have an effect. “Brazil starts to grow again, this point ends up losing importance”, he states.
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