Last month, the government collected R$ 95,77 billion in taxes and federal contributions. Dyogo Oliveira, executive secretary of the Ministry of Finance pointed out that the government will have to appoint new measures in order to grow tax collection.
Amidst the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff and during a low point in economic activity, the Federal Revenue Service registered a decrease in tax collections by 6.9 % for the third month of the year, when compared to March 2015. This is the lowest performance for March since 2010. Compared to February of the same year, collections rose by 8.56 %.
During the first three months of 2016, a total of R$ 313 billion was collected, being 8.19 % less than for the same period in 2015. This also marks the lowest result since 2010. The dwindling tax collections is a point regularly highlighted by Minister of Finance Nelson Barbosa in his argument to support lower tax objectives and the implementation of the CPMF (Contribuição Provisória sobre a Movimentação ou Transmissão de Valores e de Créditos e Direitos de Natureza Financeira – a Brazilian tax on financial transactions).
Oliveira put forward that the government will have to implement new measures to improve the indicator, without specifying his proposition. However, he remarked that the focus will be on tackling both expenses and revenue. The debate has been polarized between those who promote to cut spending and those who favour higher taxes. During a speech in the Senate, Oliveira stated that efforts into both directions will be necessary.