Brazil tax reform seen boosting long-term economic growth, official says

BRASILIA (Reuters) – A proposed tax reform in Brazil will likely generate additional economic growth of 12% over the next 15 years, the special secretary for tax reform, Bernard Appy, said on Wednesday.

The tax reform would generate, by a “conservative” estimate, a 12% increase in gross domestic product over 15 years, an 11% increase in exports and 20% growth in investments, he told federal lawmakers.

The proposals currently up for debate in Congress would end a tax on industrialized products and some tariffs and replace them with either a single tax on goods and services or a federal and local tax.

Last week, Appy told reporters the government believes the much-expected tax reform will pass in Congress by the end of this year, a delay from its initial target of the first half of the year.

(Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Alistair Bell)