Source: Agência Brasil (DF), 22/06/2009

Last week, Mabel and the leaders of the government base met with the Minister of Finance, Guido Mantega, for an evaluation of the proposal, which has been in the Chamber for 15 months. In November last year, the tax reform text, sent by the government, was approved by the Special Merit Commission.

Due to the global economic crisis, at the end of the year, opposition leaders prevented the reform from being discussed and voted on in the Chamber's plenary session, under the argument that the government's text had been prepared at a time when the Brazilian economy it was experiencing a good moment and that, with the crisis, the scenario was different.

The leaders then came to schedule for March this year the discussion and vote on tax reform.

Since then, the rapporteur has held meetings with the benches of six parties, including the PDT, PT, PP and PCdoB, to explain the points of the proposal and defend its importance for the country's development.

“We explained to the deputies the final objective of the reform. In addition to relieving investments, it will allow people to invest more. The cheaper payroll will make it possible to have more formal jobs and also lower the cost of our products for export, ”said Mabel.

According to him, the reform will promote a simplification of taxes, as, for example, in the case of the Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS). Today, the tax has 27 laws and, according to the proposal, it will have only one.

According to the proposal that is being processed in the Chamber, the National Fund for Regional Development will be created, whose resources will be used for financing and structuring works to support tourism in the country's development. “The tax reform is going to release tax. It will lower taxes mainly for people who earn up to five minimum wages, ”said Mabel.

“Today, a person who earns up to five salaries has a 48% tax burden. This means that half of what she earns goes to tax. What do we want to do? It is taking from 48% to at least 28% or 25%. Taking 20% ​​off, the worker who earns R $ 1.000 will have another R $ 200 in his pocket. This is more money in the economy, ”he said.

The rapporteur also said that the tax reform will lengthen the collection base. “There will be more people paying taxes. People who often evade, or are unreached, will pay. There, the base and the collection also go up. ”

According to him, in his opinion, a device that he calls a tax burden lock has been included. “Raising the collection, there is a tax burden lock. The excess of collection being the largest, the collection exceeds the lock. Any amount that exceeds the limit is cut and will relieve the economy, ”he explained. This exemption, according to him, will affect the price of food, medicines and popular consumer goods, whose taxation directly affects people who earn less.

In Mabel's opinion, the difficulty in convincing the opposition to vote for reform lies in the fact that she has “a political bias for some things. She [the reform] is very sensitive. But I feel that there are many members of the opposition who want to vote for the reform, who see the importance that it has ”. For the deputy, the opposition lacks to understand his report.

Tax reform, Mabel pointed out, will speed up companies and improve the competitiveness of Brazilian products. "Therefore, the crisis does not hinder the tax reform vote," he argued.