Politics

Unfavorable environment for reforms in Brazil, says former solicitor general

Unfavorable environment for reforms in Brazil, says former Solicitor General Luiz Inácio Adams
Solicitor General Luiz Inácio Adams. Photo: Valter Campanato/ABr

The agenda of economic reforms proposed by President Jair Bolsonaro is “necessary” to allow for Brazil to develop.

That is the not view of a member of Mr. Bolsonaro’s economic team, but rather Luís Inácio Adams, a lawyer who served as Brazil’s Solicitor General under former President Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party. 

Despite supporting the Economy Ministry’s agenda, Mr. Adams is skeptical about whether or not the government can pass reforms to the tax system and its public service. “A tax reform is highly unpopular with state-level administrations because nobody wants to lose revenue. And the migration to a new system would take ten years—it would be challenging to keep two simultaneous and parallel tax systems.”

Mr. Adams spoke to The Brazilian Report on this and a number of other topics. You can read the highlights of this interview below. (Disclaimer: this interview was edited for brevity and clarity.)

This week, the Supreme Court is expected to conclude a trial on whether or not tax authorities are allowed to flag suspicious financial transactions to law enforcement prior to a court order. What are you expecting from this trial?

The information provided by anti-money laundering agencies is paramount to fighting corruption. Making people accountable for white-collar crimes is indispensable in any democratic system, and it generates credibility and stability [for investors]. Brazil, however, is still evolving in this process. Our legal system has traditionally required judicial authorization for accessing people’s private data—as a way to protect citizens’ rights to privacy.

We had several dictatorial regimes that allowed abusive practices by state agents. The Supreme Court now comes to determine the threshold to prevent auditors from “fishing” for wrongdoings...

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