Combating tax evasion and smuggling could yield BRL 120 billion

“We have many exemptions that are not justified, which were exempted in the pre-election period, for example. We are also in a position to fight tax evasion and smuggling, something around R$ 120 billion. This will be presented at the right time”, declared the minister as she left the launch ceremony of the Participatory Pluriannual Plan Elaboration Process (PPA Participativo).

According to Tebet, public accounts are out of balance due to increased spending and exemptions decided by the last government in the months prior to the elections. She said that the new fiscal framework, sent to Congress on Tuesday (18)is not focused on raising expenditures, but on revising public spending.

“Public accounts are out of balance, because we have a deficit of R$ 231 billion, the result of four years (of the previous government), when public policies were also paralyzed. Contrary to what many say, the framework does not look at the revenue side, it looks at the side of cuts and the adjustment of public spending. We have goals to meet,” he declared.

Like Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, Tebet reiterated that the government is preparing a series of measures to reinforce cash, but without changing the tax rate. She classified Haddad’s declaration this Tuesday of wanting to review tax incentives for sectors of the economy, which reach R$ 600 billion, as “correct”.

“The Ministry of Finance is listing a package, a basket of measures from the perspective of revenue, to increase revenue without increasing the rate or raising taxes. What does that mean? It means that, in the words of the Minister of Finance, we have many exemptions that are not justified, which are unjustifiable. Many of them were made, exempted in the pre-election period”, said the minister.

In the morning, Tebet and other ministers participated, alongside President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the inauguration ceremony of the Social Participation Council and the launch of the Participatory PPA Elaboration Process. The council intends to replicate the experience of participatory budgets, in which the community meets to point out priorities in the budgets for the following years. The government wants to repeat the process with the PPA, a plan that establishes guidelines for public policies every four years.