Brazil Politics: Haddad, Senate Still at Odds on Payroll Tax (1)

Brazil’s government has agreed to abandon its efforts to end a costly payroll tax exemption as part of ongoing fiscal negotiations, Senate leader Rodrigo Pacheco said Friday, an assertion Finance Minister Fernando Haddad countered just hours later.

“There is a commitment from the federal government to reissue the provisional measure to revoke the part that concerns the payroll tax exemption,” Pacheco said at an event in Switzerland. “This is the political commitment we made, and this is how it will happen.”

Haddad, however, said later Friday morning that the government still prefers a gradual resumption of the payroll tax, arguing ...