June 21, 2022

15:06

Bruno Pacheco – Amazon Agency

MANAUS – The Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, accepted on Monday, 21, the request of the bench of the Amazon for maintaining the injunction of the Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court (STF), against the decree of President Bolsonaro (PL) that reduces the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI) and harms the Manaus Free Trade Zone (ZFM).

Aras spoke against the appeal filed by the General Advocacy of the Union (AGU) to overturn the decision of Moraes. The effects of the decree of Bolsonaro were suspended in May this year, by the minister of the STF, after a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) filed by the Solidarity party, on behalf of the Amazonas bench in Congress.

Aras’ decision

In the PGR decision, Augusto Aras argued that the reduction of tax incentives, proposed by decrees 11.047/2022, 11.052/2022 and 11.055/2022, appears to risk emptying stimulus to the permanence of companies, and installation of others, in the Industrial Pole of Manaus (PIM).

“The PGR makes it clear that the AGU’s arguments that the Amazon is a tax haven or that it is not possible to comply with the injunction issued by Minister Alexandre de Moraes to exclude products from the MFTz from the effects of the IPI decrees have no place”, said, to the press, the federal lawmaker Marcelo Ramos (PSD-AM).

For the congressman, with Augusto Aras’ decision, the Amazonas caucus is more confident than ever, defending and safeguarding the comparative advantages of the Manaus Free Trade Zone economic model.

“We continue, more confident than ever, together with our Amazonas bench, defending and safeguarding the model’s comparative advantages, which are clearly constitutional and, thus, protecting the jobs, health, and universities that need the taxes from the MFTz to maintain themselves”, celebrated Ramos.

Remember

The judicial imbroglio involving Bolsonaro and the Manaus Free Trade Zone began in the second month of this year, when the federal government published a decree allowing for a reduction of up to 25% in the rates of the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI). The President of the Republic even promised to the governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, to exempt the products of the MFTz from the measure, but did not fulfill what he had said.

Bolsonaro, therefore, promoted new decrees and increased the reduction to 35%. To revoke the federal government’s decision, governor Wilson Lima, politicians from the Amazonas caucus in Congress and parties even filed several Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality (ADIs) in the Supreme Court (STF).

The IPI reduction for the entire country is seen as a threat to the MFTz, because the measure compromises the competitiveness of the Manaus Industrial Complex (PIM), which brings together about 500 industries and generates more than 100 thousand direct jobs. Experts point out, still, that the decision may lead companies to lose interest to remain in the region or to settle.

See Aras’ decision: