Regulation should be approved in the Senate next week
Written by :
Heloisa Vasconcelos
The Minister of International Relations, Alexandre Padilha, gave an interview to journalists at Planalto this Monday (30) talking about the proposal to regulate sports betting in Brazil.
According to him, the government expects the issue to be voted on in the Senate by next week, with a resolution in Congress by the end of November.
“We have until the end of November to complete the approval of this law,” he said. He highlighted that economic issues are the government’s “absolute priority” for budgetary balance.
The issue should be discussed in more depth by the government in a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday (31), with the presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and leaders of the government’s support base in the Chamber.
With information from Poder360.
Senate Vote
Bill 3,626, which deals with the regulation of sports betting, was approved in the Chamber of Deputies in September and is awaiting evaluation by senators.
In the Senate, it still needs to be assessed by the Sports Committee (Cesp) and the Economic Affairs Committee (CAE). The topic should have been voted on last week, but ended up being taken off the agenda.
Government figures believe that the bill should be evaluated by Cesp next Wednesday (1st), but the bill is not yet on the committee’s agenda.
The bill must be approved by both Cesp and CAE before it can be sent to the plenary session to be voted on by senators. If senators make changes to the text, it will be sent back to the lower house before being sent for presidential approval.
The matter is being processed as a matter of urgency and the vote is being rushed, since Provisional Measure 1,182, the current legislation on the matter, expires on November 21.
Changes in taxation
One issue that should be changed during the Senate’s consideration of the matter is the tax rate that will be charged to betting houses that intend to operate in the national market.
The current text provides for an 18% tax on companies’ net profits, an amount considered high by the market.
Senator Angelo Coronel, who is the rapporteur of the bill in the CAE, is considering reducing the charge to 12% in the case of betting houses and maintaining the value at 18% for casinos.
The focus of everything is to attract new resources to improve the Union’s revenue, this is a common thought of the Chamber, the Senate and the Executive. I don’t think there will be any problem. (Angelo Coronel)
He met with Finance Minister Fernando Haddad last week on the matter and is discussing the topic with other important figures in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.