Motta schedules vote to overturn IOF decree due to “urgency” of majority

The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), scheduled for this Wednesday (25) the vote on the Legislative Decree Project (PDL) that could overturn the government decree that increases the IOF, responding to what he classifies as a request from the “majority” of parliamentarians.

According to him, the approval of the urgency – 346 votes in favor and 97 against on July 16 – “spoke for itself”. He also said that he did not need to inform the government about this. Motta's decision was not expected by the Planalto, especially in a week in which the Chamber's sessions will be held remotely due to the São João festivities.

“The urgency of voting on the decree spoke for itself. And the Speaker of the House has to follow the majority. I need to create an agenda that serves the House and Brazil – and the House will not accept a tax increase to solve Brazil’s fiscal problem,” Motta told G1 .

The PDL vote in the session this Wednesday (25) was brought forward by him in a post on social media on Tuesday night (24) as the first item on the agenda. Despite the project being negative for the government, Motta scheduled others that are favorable to the Planalto, such as the provisional measure of credit assigned to CLT workers, among others.

Hugo Motta also said that the decree that taxes tax-exempt financial investments, among others, will also be included in the PDL to be voted on in the afternoon.

“The PDL will be modified to address both decrees. Repealing one and leaving the other would be a worse situation, increasing the IOF anyway, and Congress will not accept any more tax increases,” the parliamentarian continued.

On the other hand, the Speaker of the House denied that the vote to overturn the government decrees is in retaliation for the delay in releasing parliamentary amendments, which the Planalto has been trying to speed up since last week.

“I have already warned the government that the release of the amendments was delayed, but that is not the case. In this case, I am putting to a vote a project that had its urgency approved with 346 votes in favor, this is the feeling of the House, which I have to respect,” he added.

If the PDL is approved by the Chamber this Wednesday (25), which is what is expected given the size of the vote in favor of the request for urgency, the expectation is that it will also be ratified later in the Senate. President Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP) has also already said that he is against the tax increase.