Panel SA: Agreement postpones projects that affect companies until the next government

The president-elect’s transition team agreed with the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG), to postpone the vote on projects with a fiscal impact (increased expenses) that generate losses for the business.

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin coordinates these discussions and the interlocution with Congress is mainly done by Senator Wellington Dias (PT-PI). According to Lula’s advisers, the arrangement had the approval of the president of both houses and has two objectives.

One of the reasons for Lula’s pre-inauguration endeavor is to avoid expenses and seek revenue so that the amount requested via the Transition PEC — a license to spend above the limit defined by the ceiling — is lower than projected.

Another concern is to avoid the approval this year of controversial bills or with measures disapproved by Lula and that, to remedy them, the president-elect has to sign provisional measures or his allied base in Congress has to present bills.

The two main projects that, according to advisors involved in this discussion, went to the “refrigerator” are the tax reform, including the revision of the exemption limit for the Income Tax, and the revision of Simples Nacional, authored by Senator Jorginho Mello (PL-SC), elected governor of Santa Catarina.

The project simplifies for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs the collection of ICMS, a state tax, by bringing together all taxes, including federal ones, in a single payment form, as long as the companies’ billings are within the limit established by the tax regime. Simple.

Lula’s team wants to review this measure because, next year, it will open negotiations with the states on the impasse in relation to the ICMS charged on fuels and essential services. The unification and reduction of the rates was a measure considered to be electoral by Jair Bolsonaro and is being questioned in the Federal Supreme Court because the states consider it to be unconstitutional and have had billions in losses with the new rules.

The consideration of the bill defended by the agribusiness bench, which provides for inspection of agricultural defense by self-control, should also wait for next year.

The idea of ​​this project, authored by Senator Tereza Cristina, a former Minister of Agriculture re-elected to the Senate, is for the Ministry’s inspectors to focus their actions on higher risk activities, giving more freedom to companies with “good track records” to take care of of their control mechanisms in production.

Lula’s team has reservations. The technicians who analyze this matter consider the criticisms of representatives of consumer rights to be pertinent, that this policy will concentrate inspection on exports, leaving production focused on the domestic market to the background.

Presidential vetoes that were pending consideration by Congress will also be postponed. One of them is the one that foresees the overthrow of the deductible charged by airlines in the dispatch of luggage.

This measure should be maintained until next year. On the other hand, the Ministry of Economy is unlikely to fulfill one of the campaign promises made by Bolsonaro to zero federal taxes on airplane gasoline, something that could give some discount on ticket prices.

Julio Wiziack (interim) with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Diego Felix