March 25, 2022

14:03

from Cenarium Magazine

BRASÍLIA – Following up on the kindness packages he has been signing week after week, President Jair Bolsonaro will present a new measure with the objective of serving app workers, individual transportation and delivery drivers. The idea is to give a “safeguard” to this segment, allowing the social security inclusion of the category by means of a Provisional Measure. Bolsonaro, who has already extended the Auxílio Brasil and has seen the positive reflexes of this type of measure, in the last polls, wants to continue targeting workers who do not have a signed contract or do not have social security protection.

For Amazonas, nothing

As for Amazonas, the government ‘gives with one hand, but takes away with the other’. More than a week after signing an agreement with governor Wilson Lima for the publication of a new decree reducing the IPI, except for products from the Manaus Free Trade Zone, nothing has been released.

What one hears in the corridors of the Ministry of Economy is the opposite: that the plans of Minister Paulo Guedes are to lower the IPI even further by reducing the tax by 33%. The announcement was made at an event for real estate development businessmen. The tax had already been reduced by 25% and its collection is shared with states and municipalities.

Blocked agendas

Coordinator of the Committee of Finance Secretaries, Décio Padilha, states that the decree will impose on the states an annual revenue loss of R$ 6 billion, and municipalities, approximately, R$ 5 billion. The Amazon bench, through the vice-president of the House, Marcelo Ramos (PSD-AM) and senators Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) and Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM), threatens that, without the agreement, will block the agendas of interest to the government.

In the last session of Congress, chaired by Ramos, he removed from the agenda a request for a supplementary credit. The scenario continues to be cloudy with the 10% import tax reduction for computer goods produced in the MFTz.

Lack of diesel in Pará

While politicians are pressuring Petrobras for price reductions, the fuel sector is concerned about the possibility of a diesel shortage due to the lag in international prices. Even with the recent readjustment, Petrobras’ prices are still below those charged abroad.

The problem lies in the regional distributors, who announced that the situation is “extremely serious” and that there is already a shortage of fuel in some states, such as Pará. With lagging prices, the distributors cannot import fuels because it is not economically feasible to compete with Petrobras.

Lula defines campaign coordination

Lula has finally defined the executive coordination of the presidential campaign, a kind of hard core. Gleisi Hoffrmann will be the general coordinator, a position traditionally held by the party president, Aloisio Mercadante will be in charge of the government program, Franklin Martins will coordinate communication, Luiz Dulci will be responsible for the agenda, and Marcio Macedo will be the treasurer.

With 46 votes, the PT approved the text that defends a policy of broad alliances beyond the parties of the left and that includes all democratic sectors. “We call for the unity of democratic sectors in a political and social movement that defeats Bolsonaro and Bolsonarism”, says the approved text.