Economy Minister Paulo Guedes told the CNN that he never defended a price freeze and that interpreting his speech to supermarkets in this way is “absurd” and “something of people who supported the Cruzado Plan and are traumatized to this day”.
“It’s inappropriate to compare me to Sarney. This is something from people who supported the Cruzado Plan, which was an excrescence, and is traumatized to this day. They are resurrecting and trying to exorcise their own ghosts to this day,” Guedes told CNN this Friday (10th).
According to Guedes, he defended something “completely different” to retail representatives. He rebutted criticism that the suggestion made to businessmen had an electoral nature and said that his speech only expressed a concern on the part of the government that the reduction of taxes would not be lost along the chain and could, in fact, reach the final consumer.
“What I said was: the tax reduction gives supermarket suppliers breath so that they absorb the increase in costs without passing them on to the shelves”, said the minister.
“When you remove the tax wedge, you can absorb part of the cost increase without passing it on to the consumer. You open up a space to cushion the increase in costs. That’s the concern [de que a atuação do governo baixando impostos não se perca nesse momento]. And it’s something voluntary, there’s no tabulation,” she said.
“Cost can go up [sem aparecer no preço final], because the tax reduction gave him space to maintain the margin he had before. I took an economics class [e vieram com essa comparação]. There’s nothing electoral. They are judging people by their own standard”, added Guedes.
when talking to CNN , Guedes gave the example of a product whose price was R$110, with R$10 in taxes. “If the cost went from R$90 to R$92, R$94, R$95… he doesn’t need to raise the price on the shelf, because I took the taxes off. As long as costs do not rise from R$90 and exceed R$100, he does not need to change the final price”, he exemplified.
“I have never advocated a price freeze. We have the price that is on the gondola. And I’m taking taxes. Now, the producer and the supplier have space to keep the same margin and not pass it on to the consumer”, she emphasized.
Source: CNN Brasil
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