Pacheco calls Haddad’s warning on fiscal responsibility ‘unnecessary and unfair’

The President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), called the Finance Minister’s statement “unnecessary”, Fernando Haddad, who in an interview released this Saturday, 27th, said that Congress “also has to respect” the Fiscal Responsibility law.

“Therefore, the minister’s admonition Haddadfor whom I have respect, is unnecessary, not to say unfair to Congress”, said Pacheco in a statement released to the press, in which he also states that having fiscal responsibility is “very different” from demanding from Parliament “full adherence to what the Executive thinks on the development of Brazil”.

“It’s one thing to have fiscal responsibility, it’s quite another to demand that Parliament fully adhere to what the Executive thinks about Brazil’s development. Especially because progress is based on the generation of wealth, technology, credit, opportunities and jobs, and not on burden on business, production and labor”, said Pacheco. The statement of Haddad was made in an interview with journalist Mônica Bergamo, from Folha de S. Paulo.

The minister’s statement took place in the context of the action presented by the government in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) questioning the extension of the payroll exemption for sectors of the economy and the benefit granted to city halls – now suspended by decision of minister Cristiano Zanin. In the note released this Saturday, Pacheco lists reforms approved by Congress, such as the spending cap, pension reform and the new sanitation framework, and recalls the economic team’s agenda to increase government revenue, endorsed last year.

“From the perspective of expenditure, let us not forget that the spending cap, pension reform and modernization of legislative frameworks, such as basic sanitation, are works of Congress. Not to mention the 2023 agenda that we fulfilled in favor of a record collection of Brazilian state”, said the president of the Senate.

The government’s decision to question the STF The tax benefits approved by Congress, which this year alone have an impact of around R$25 billion, generated a negative reaction in Parliament. After Pacheco said yesterday that the Executive’s move generated “perplexity”, the Senate presented, on Friday night, the 26th, an appeal against Zanin’s decision. In the trial in the virtual plenary of the Court, four ministers have already accompanied the rapporteur in the case, but there was a request for a view from Minister Luiz Fux.