Postponement of voting on Refis frustrates medium and large companies - ISTOÉ MONEY

The Chamber’s decision to postpone to 2022 the vote on a new debt installment program (Refis) for medium and large companies frustrated sectors awaiting approval of the project, a demand that has been going on since last year, when the pandemic of covid-19 caused an abrupt drop in the country’s growth.

The new program would cover from taxes such as Income Tax to eSocial arrears, the registration platform for the fulfillment of labor and tax obligations.

The biggest complaint is that the lawmakers took a lightning vote on the Refis of micro and small companies and left behind the medium and large companies, which are in a delicate situation, while they overturned the veto, which paves the way for an electoral fund of BRL 5.7 billion.

The business sector warned that the delay in Refis, which would give companies cash breath, will further hamper the resumption of growth. Business leaders consider it a mistake that the government has worked for the postponement, which will cost more for the resumption of growth, which was already compromised in 2022 by the policy of raising interest rates underway by the Central Bank.

Signals

The businessmen had received signals from the leadership of the Congress that the Refis would be approved and they blame the pressure from the team of the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, to change the opinion of the rapporteur in the plenary, André Fufuca (PP-MA), for the withdrawal of the vote on Thursday night.

Guedes, on the other hand, never wanted Refis, preferring the tax transaction mechanism, and only accepted the payment in installments with the linkage of the rules to the drop in revenue of companies during the pandemic – precisely the point that the rapporteur withdrew in the plenary based on four seams from different parties.

To the state, the rapporteur said that the plenary postponed the Refis to 2022 when it saw that the Senate would not guarantee the vote on the changes following the approval of the Chamber, as was agreed. The PT also asked for the postponement. “Between voting now and in February there was no difference,” he said, who denies that there was any articulation by Guedes to withdraw the project from the agenda.

“Business people took a bad look at this decision. Many companies were waiting, and I’ll say again that there’s no reason why it shouldn’t happen”, criticized the president of the Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais (Fiemg), Flávio Roscoe.

Businesswoman Vivian Suruagy, president of the National Confederation of Information and Communication Technology (Contic), who worked on the articulation for the approval of Refis, said that the delay threatens investments and jobs. “They voted for Refis for small companies, and for companies that generate income and employment, they did not vote”, he criticized. He attributes the delay to Guedes’ team’s insistence on maintaining the Refis link to billing.
The information is from the newspaper The State of São Paulo.