Congress overturns vetoes on the Agro Law

In a remote session, the National Congress overturned this Wednesday (12) vetoes on three articles of the Agro Law (13.986/2020) that changes the rules of rural credit. Among the sections resumed are the relief of rural producers, in the transaction of decarbonization credits, the payment of Social Security contributions and the costs of notary fees.

The Agro law is the result of modifications made by the Legislative Branch in Provisional Measure 897/2019, approved in April this year, which became known as the Agro MP. Rapporteur of the measure in the Chamber, deputy Pedro Lupion (DEM-PR), highlighted that the rule deals with the granting of credits and debt financing for rural producers. “The overturning of the vetoes comes at a good time and will help reduce bureaucracy in rural producers’ access to credit. These measures can increase agribusiness financing revenues in Brazil by R$5 billion,” said the parliamentarian.

The parliamentarians also returned to the section of article 55 that changes the Federal Revenue's understanding in the Cosit Consultation Solution 11/2017. According to the vice-president of the Parliamentary Front for Agriculture (FPA), deputy Sérgio Souza (MDB-PR), the rule changes the basis for calculating the contribution owed by the rural employer who is an individual to Social Security, excluding certain portions of the production of concept of gross revenue for tax collection. “The measure overtaxed the integrated cooperative system. A member of a cooperative, for example, paid up to ten times more taxes than a member of a multinational company.”

With the veto overturned, according to deputy Evair de Melo (PP-ES), the cooperative system in the country now has legal security in non-commercial operations carried out by agricultural cooperatives with their members.

“Regardless of the party flag, what we need is to focus on Brazil.” The resumption of the measure also equates the integrated system of cooperatives with that of companies, which guarantees cooperative members a reduction in the social contribution rate and tax equality.

The veto on article 56, which reduced the costs of notary offices (fees) in the registration of credit operations, was also overturned. When vetoing the measure, the government claimed that the section would invade the competence of the states and the Federal District to legislate on taxation.

“An important achievement for Brazilian agriculture, the fees will now be in force with a national ceiling to avoid abusive charges for registrations and notary endorsements,” said deputy Zé Mario Schreiner (DEM-GO).

The deputies and senators also voted to overturn the veto on article 60, a section that set a 15% tax rate on revenue from Decarbonization Credits (CBIOs). Deputy Arnaldo Jardim (Cidadania-SP) stated that “the idea of ​​the program is to impose individual decarbonization targets each year on polluting sectors, such as fossil fuel distributors, for example. To meet these goals, it is necessary to purchase credits, which, since April, have been traded on the São Paulo Stock Exchange (B3).”