The author of the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) on Fuels, senator Carlos Fávaro (PSD-MT), countered this Tuesday (8) the criticism of Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) to the project and stated that “kamikaze is economic policy”. of the federal government.
The economic team has been using the term “kamikaze” to refer to the PEC because it believes that the text could “set the economy on fire”.
By granting unrestricted tax exemptions and also creating and expanding expenses, the impact of the PEC tends to exceed R$100 billion, although the exact calculations are still being refined.
Fávaro disagrees with the assessment and says he has no way of finding solutions to lower fuel prices that do not involve spending money on the part of the Executive.
“It needs a compensatory measure to balance and for that it needs money, so I suggested the use of the Petrobras dividend from the Union and the royalties from the sale of pre-salt oil wells scheduled for 2022”, he said in an interview.
He stated that Guedes “only thinks about paying the interest on the debt” and that he does not think about the population.
“He never worried about the humblest, he didn’t present a proposal that could serve the humblest who returned to cooking with firewood. He didn’t present a proposal for a process of rational control of fuel prices without hurting the market”, he said.
Senator Alexandre Silveira (PSD-MG), favorite to assume the rapporteurship of the matter, also criticized the performance of the head of the Economy and said that he is “skilled” and “promoter of dissent”.
Silveira said that the attempt to title the proposal with a pejorative name is a political mistake.
“It makes an adventure to be able to divert the focus, which is hunger and the country becoming increasingly impoverished. I think he is unskilled. He is so unskillful that he does not build stability,” he said.
And he added: “Instead of building convergences, it seeks dissent.”
The text allows the Union, states and municipalities to reduce taxes on the prices of diesel, biodiesel, gas and electricity in the years 2022 and 2023, without the need to compensate for the loss of revenue.
The proposal also authorizes the Union to create, in 2022 and 2023, a diesel aid of up to R$1,200 per month for self-employed truck drivers.
Another device opens the way for the expansion of the gas allowance, currently paid to 5.5 million families in extreme poverty. According to the author of the PEC, the subsidy currently at 50% of the value of the cylinder could rise to 100%.
Within the government, there are also advocates of extending the scope of the gas allowance to all 17.5 million families benefiting from Auxílio Brasil, a social program that replaced Bolsa Família — a mark of PT administrations.
The text also authorizes the transfer of up to R$ 5 billion to city halls to subsidize the gratuity of the elderly and avoid a tariff on urban bus lines in the middle of an election year.
Expenditures would be carried out outside the scope of the spending ceiling, the rule that limits expenditures to the variation of inflation and is now considered the anchor of the government’s fiscal policy.
The proposal is much broader than the PEC of the Chamber, which is restricted to the exemption of taxes on fuels. Even so, the impact of this other text would be between R$54 billion and R$75 billion, according to internal government calculations.
The Chamber’s PEC has the support of another wing of the government and was written within the Civil House, which also displeased Guedes’ team.
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