SAO PAULO - Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Friday that resistance from some sectors to tighter rules for the use of tax credits will dissipate and Congress will make the best decision on whether the new rules are permanent.
The new rules aim to raise as much as 29.2 billion reais to offset a revenue loss of 26.3 billion reais from tax benefits passed by Congress for the payrolls of some economic sectors and small cities. Brazilian lobbies from soybean companies to the biofuel sector have come together to strongly criticize the new rules, increasing the odds that Congress, heavily influenced by farming interests, will reject the measure.
"We have a fiscal framework we have to respect. If we exceed the limit established in the fiscal framework, you must have contingency measures," he told journalists.