The Congress approved the regulation of the tax reform on Tuesday, considered a victory for the government and centrão. While civil society and the Judiciary discuss the tax exemptions for agrochemicals due to the environmental and social damage caused by these products in agricultural production, the parliament endorsed maintaining the 60% tax exemption for pesticides and expanding the tax waiver to transgenic products and services related to the spraying of agrochemicals in crops.
Alan Tygel, from the Permanent Campaign Against Agrochemicals and for Life, laments the approval of the project, explaining that the problem is more severe. Besides the tax exemption in the tax reform, the agrochemical industry also receives total exemption from the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI) and, in some states, there is also a waiver of the Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS), which applies to the commercialization of products. Thus, the tax exemption, in many cases, can reach the entire supply chain.
Throughout the entire process of the reform’s approval in the Chamber and later in the Senate, we tried to remove agrochemicals from this 60% exemption category, as we consider them non-essential products for agricultural production and not significantly influencing food prices. If the goal is to lower food prices, which is a very important objective, it should be done with more exemptions on food rather than on a production chain that, besides being involved in production, also leads to pollution in the environment and health damage.
Malu Ribeiro, from the SOS Mata Atlântica organization, attributes the approval of the measure to the profile of the National Congress. This reflects the strength of economic power behind these political benches. It’s not by chance that this [agribusiness] bench is very strong. They wouldn’t be so strong just through partisan political action. They are powerful because these economic sectors favor, elect, and support these candidacies, these representations, and this happens without civil society being able to keep up.