Brazil elections 2022: Bolsonaro promises zero taxes and salary adjustments in 2023

On Wednesday, August 17, Brazil’s president and candidate for reelection, Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party – PL), said that federal taxes on gasoline, diesel, and cooking gas will remain zero in 2023. He met with mayors who support his candidacy at the Royal Tulip Hotel in Brasilia.

“Today, I had a conversation with part of the economic team of [Minister Paulo] Guedes about PLOA (Annual Budget Law Project). We guarantee for 2023 to continue with zero federal gasoline, diesel, and cooking gas taxes. I also asked for zero taxes on aviation kerosene,” said the Chief Executive.

When leaving the event, Bolsonaro told journalists that “it was agreed” and that there would be no PIS/Cofins and Cide (Contributions for Intervention in the Economic Domain) on gasoline, diesel, ethanol, and gas.

The president was accompanied by Senator Eduardo Gomes (PL-TO), Representative Flávia Arruda (PL-DF), and Representative Ricardo Barros (PP-PR).

In his speech, Bolsonaro raised achievements of his government, such as the Social Security reform, the annulment of regulatory standards, and the decrease in fines in the field. “We gave relief in those who undertake in our country,” he said.

BRAZIL AID

For 2023, the PL candidate promised federal civil servants salary readjustment and career restructuring. He also said he would send a proposal to the National Congress to make the Auxílio Brasil of R$600 definitive.

“We are going to parliament again; I talked to Paulo Guedes to make the R$600 aid in 2023 definitive. With responsibility. If you do it without responsibility, the dollar will go up, inflation will go up, and we will go back to the time we had back then.”

Asked by journalists about the permanent Brazil Aid, Bolsonaro said it would be approved through a PEC (Proposal of Amendment to the Constitution) after the elections in October. “I am sure Parliament will support it again,” he declared.

The Chief Executive had already promised that he would make the benefit definitive. His government plan, launched last week, also talks about maintaining the R$600 value as one of the government’s “priority commitments”.

The new R$600 Brazil Aid will be paid in five installments until December. In January 2023, the value would decrease to R$400.

To increase the value of the benefit until December, Bolsonaro decreed a state of emergency. The maneuver allows spending above what is established in the Budget.

WAGE ADJUSTMENT

As for the salary increase for federal employees, the president pointed out that the percentage had not yet been defined.

Previously, in June 2022, Bolsonaro said that the government ruled out a readjustment for the class because it was studying a new measure via an increase in the food allowance. At the time, the head of the Executive said that the proposal was under discussion with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes.

At the beginning of the year, the federal civil servants pressured the government for a readjustment and even held strikes and protests in several federal government agencies.

The government had until the end of the first semester to decide on the matter. The LRF (Fiscal Responsibility Law) prohibits the concession of readjustments in the term’s last six months.

ELECTIONS

The president was also questioned about military personnel from the Armed Forces in a group that inspects the source code of electronic ballot boxes.

“This whole issue is being handled exclusively by the Armed Forces, the Minister of Defense with the team now under our Minister Alexandre de Moraes,” he said.

The then-president of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), Minister Edson Fachin, extended the deadline for technicians from the Ministry of Defense to carry out the inspection.

Last week, the Minister of Defense, Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, requested the inclusion of nine military personnel in the group that will oversee the security of the ballot boxes.

Moraes took over the presidency of the TSE from Fachin on Tuesday, August 16. Bolsonaro was present at the inauguration, which gathered authorities, former presidents of the Republic, ministers of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), candidates, governors, and representatives from embassies.

With information from Poder360