Brazil’s Lula Considers Giving Up on Bank Tax Hike
(Bloomberg) -- President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration is considering giving up on its idea of increasing a tax on bank profits to offset a payroll break approved by Congress, the government’s whip in the legislature, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, said according to CNN Brasil.
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The idea is to keep only the proposals from lawmakers to offset the cost of the gradual restoration of payroll taxes for companies and municipalities, without including an increase in the Social Contribution on Net Income for financial institutions, according to CNN Brasil.
Still, there would need to be an agreement in which lawmakers commit to the approval of additional compensation in the future if their current proposals prove insufficient, Rodrigues said, according to the report.
Senate head Rodrigo Pacheco said earlier this week that lawmakers have proposed at least 10 alternatives to Lula’s government, including already-approved taxes on sports betting and purchases of up to $50 abroad.
Venezuela
It is regrettable that the Venezuelan government has not yet released complete ballot records, Lula’s top foreign affairs adviser said in an interview with Globo News. While some say Brazil is being lenient toward Nicolas Maduro, the government is trying to do the right thing, Celso Amorim said in the interview.
Amorim also said that Venezuela is a very divided country and that they need to act correctly so that the situation does not worsen. “I am very afraid that there could be a very serious conflict,” he said.
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