“We found a state with a deep fiscal imbalance” upon arriving at the government on January 1, Lula stated, who advanced “a new fiscal regime for Brazil”.
The announcement was part of the president’s message to Congress, at the beginning of the sessions, a text that the deputy Luciano Bivar read.
According to the ANSA agency, Lula also criticized the “destructive effects of the spending ceiling”a constitutional clause that had “destructive effects on social policies and became innocuous as an instrument of fiscal control.”
Meanwhile, the pro-government leader in Deputies, José Guimaraes, after meeting with the president at the Planalto Palace, confirmed that the idea of a reform was in the conversation “among so many important issues.”
For the deputy, it is possible to approve a reform text by the end of this year.
“The negotiation is in charge of Minister (Finance, Fernando) Haddad; the sub-chiefs will help. We have specialists in the area here. We are going to start talking from Monday about its content and what we can do beforehand to have a tax reform robust that addresses the problems,” Guimaraes explained, according to the state-run Agencia Brasil.
Consumption and income tax reform
In recent statements, Haddad said that the government intends to vote on the consumer tax reform in the first semester of this year and the rent reform in the second semester.
The simplification of consumption taxation is at the center of the first phase and the text intends to be based on two constitutional reform proposals (PEC) pending in Congress.
One of the initiatives brings together various taxes that today focus on consumption in less taxesalthough there are differences in the number and in how the merger would take place.
Lula today received Guimarães and another 13 of the 15 vice-presidents of the government in the Chamber, elected among the allied-based parties.
According to the deputy, the meeting was for rapprochement and dialogue with the president “will be permanent.”
“That is what makes the vice leaders flow and have a leading role in important issues for the government and the country,” said the legislator.
The independence of the Central Bank
On the other hand, Lula said on Thursday that could try to review the autonomy of the Central Bank of the country when the mandate of the current director of the institution, Roberto Campos Neto, ends.
“I want to know what independence was for. I will wait for this citizen to finish his term so we can make an assessment of what the independent central bank has meant.”Lula said in an interview with RedeTV.
When asked if there could be a change in relation to the autonomy of the entity, the President of the Republic confirmed.
“I think I could, but… I mean this is irrelevant to me. This is irrelevant, it’s not on my agenda. What’s on the agenda is the interest rate issue,” he said, criticizing what which he described as a search by the Central Bank commanders for a “European standard” interest rate.
Source: Ambito
