Budget rapporteur revises 2016 revenue forecast
Brasília - Senator Acir Gurgacz and Senator Rose de Freitas, chairwoman of the Joint Budget Committee, during an extraordinary committee meeting
The report on revenues for the 2016 budget plan will be voted by the Joint Budget Committee of Congress on Tuesday (Dec. 1). In the new outlook, Senator Acir Gurgacz, the committee's rapporteur, estimates the primary revenue in 2016 to reach $380 billion gross, $44.55 billion more than the budget for 2015 budget 2015.
"We've put together the most realistic report on revenues. We cannot throw in an increase and lose track of reality; nor can we make up revenue that doesn't exist," the senator pointed out.
Included in Gurgacz's report is the $4.5 billion the government is set to collect by renewing concessions with hydroelectric plants put up for auction this week. The document does not include, however, the Provisional Tax on Financial Transactions (CPMF), aimed at providing more funds for health care. The return of the old CPMF tax is yet to be voted as part of a constitutional amendment already in Congress. As yet, no date has been fixed for the ballot.
“We've reached this figure with much difficulty. We understand how difficult it is not to include the CPMF, but we can't do it, as the solution to the country won't come with a tax increase or the creation of new taxes.”
The final budget depends on the approval of the report, to be presented before the parliamentary recess, slated to begin on December 23.
Senator Rose de Freitas, chairwoman of the Budget Committee, urged her fellow committee members to have the text for the 2016 Budget finished, including sectorial reports, by December 16.
“People know that not voting on the report implies not having a budget. We must at least offer our disoriented country a budget proposal. The government has its doubts, but I'd like to make clear that we will vote on the budget, even if I have to go knocking on each and everyone's doors to explain that the country needs a budget,” the senator concluded.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira / Amarílis Anchieta
Fonte: Budget rapporteur revises 2016 revenue forecast
