The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), criticized this Saturday (27) the statement by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, in which he demanded respect from the Legislature for the Fiscal Responsibility Law. Haddad justified the government’s initiative to call the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to suspend the extension of the payroll tax exemption for 17 sectors of the economy and city halls, approved in Congress and supported by Pacheco.
“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 the burden on business, production and labor”, countered the president of the Senate, in a note.
In an interview with Folha de S.Paulo, Haddad pointed out an imbalance in the control of public accounts. “The Executive has to respect the Fiscal Responsibility Law. And Parliament, no. That’s why we now turn to the STF. It must be said that Congress also has to respect the same law. And that acts that do not respect it need to be suspended”, said the Minister of Finance.
In the note in response to Haddad, Pacheco also defended the work of Congress in recent years in public accounts, including the approval of the fiscal ceiling – a policy approved under Michel Temer’s government and overturned by the Lula government with the new fiscal framework, discredited by the majority part of the most respected economic analysts and the market.
“From the perspective of expenditure, let us not forget that spending caps, 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 record revenue for the Brazilian state. Therefore, the admonition of Minister Haddad, for whom I have respect, is unnecessary, not to mention unfair to Congress”, says Pacheco’s note.
Last Thursday (25), Minister Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former lawyer, responded to a government injunction request and suspended the exemption. Pacheco has already announced that he will appeal and discuss a political reaction, possibly to curb the power of the STF, especially in monocratic decisions. Zanin’s decision was submitted for judgment on Friday, in the virtual plenary – in which the other ministers vote remotely – but when there were five votes to maintain the decision, Luiz Fux requested a review and suspended the joint analysis of the action. The exemption therefore remains suspended indefinitely.
