March 4, 2022

08:03

Malu Dacio – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The most talked and debated theme in the last days is no other. The Decree No. 10,979, February 25, 2022, which changes the Table of Incidence of the Tax on Industrialized Products (Tipi), has taken the sleep of many Amazonians and, now, can be a stone in the shoe of, then, President Jair Bolsonaro.

The CENARIUM MAGAZINE raised that the measure can be characterized as an electoral crime, a fact that was also argued by the PSD lawmaker, Marcelo Ramos, to present in the House a Project of Legislative Decree (PDL) in order to suspend the effects of the presidential decree.

Maria Benigno, a lawyer specialized in Electoral Law, defends that, yes, the reduction of the IPI tax rate, as it was done and, now, in the middle of the election year, does have an electoral character. “As such, it may constitute the practice of prohibited conduct described in the Election Law, being an electoral civil illicit that may result in the removal of the candidates benefiting from the prohibited conduct”, she explains.

The illicit act, according to Benigno, is foreseen in art. 73, §10, of Law 9504/97, which states that “In the year in which elections are held, the free distribution of goods, values, or benefits by the public administration is prohibited, except in cases of public calamity, state of emergency, or social programs authorized by law and already being budgeted for in the previous fiscal year, in which cases the Public Ministry may promote the monitoring of their financial and administrative execution.

The penalty is foreseen in § 5: In cases of non-compliance with the provisions, in the items of the caput and in § 10, without prejudice to the provisions of § 4, the benefited candidate, public agent or not, will be subject to the cancellation of the registration or the diploma.

Tax waiver

The lawyer explains that the reduction in the tax rate is a tax waiver. “This tax has an extrafiscal character and can have its rate changed to stimulate or discourage a social or economic behavior. In this case, the measure, according to information, will benefit more than 300,000 companies and the purpose, besides stimulating the economy, is apparently to calm the market in this election year”, warned the specialist.

“Whether or not the measure will be considered by the Electoral Court as a violation of electoral legislation will depend on the evidence that is made in the respective process, that is, to verify that the reduction was not motivated by the mere intention of encouraging the industrial sector and, yes, for electoral purposes”, she concluded.

About the decree

The decree allows a reduction of up to 25% in the rates of the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI) and is signed by the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and by the Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes, one of the villains and against the benefits given to the Manaus Free Trade Zone (MFTZ). The IPI reduction affects, directly, imported products and produced in the Industrial Complex.

Read more: In the House, Marcelo Ramos’ PDL wants to suspend the decree that reduces IPI