Economy Minister Paulo Guedes stated on Tuesday that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration is considering hiking the minimum wage and civil servant wages above inflation, but he disputed plans to eliminate middle-class tax benefits.
The comments were made in advance of the Oct. 30 runoff election for president, in which right-wing Bolsonaro is trailing former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the polls. The remarks were made at a virtual event on cooperativism.
Bolsonaro’s campaign took a knock after Folha de So Paulo reported last week that the government was considering eliminating a constitutional requirement to raise the minimum wage annually by at least the inflation rate from the previous year.
According to studies conducted by the ministry, the ability to deduct medical and educational costs from income tax should be eliminated, according to a story published in the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper on Tuesday. The middle class would be primarily impacted by such a measure.
In both instances, Guedes confirmed the existence of internal studies but blamed Lula’s Workers Party (PT) employees who work in the ministry for their creation and disclosure.
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The minister emphasised that the Bolsonaro government aims to pass a tax reform that lessens the burden on the most vulnerable people and taxes businesses and earnings.
Later on Tuesday, the Economy Ministry issued a statement warning against mistaking purported studies, analyses, essays, and opinions created by the cabinet could not be “incorrectly taken as proposals from the ministry or the minister.”
(with inputs from agencies)
