ICMS
- The City of #Araraquara, in the State of #SaoPaulo, is the first #Brazil(ian) city to put a full #lockdown measure in place. It started this Sunday and was to finish yesterday, but it was extended. The mayor is from the far left and even supermarkets and grocery stores, considered essential business according to a national #COVID19 lockdown guidelines, are closed, thus breaking a national policy. #coronavirus
- #Bolsonaro signed a decree that will force gas stations to show in receipts how much in #ICMS (tax over products and services) a customer is paying over the fuel. The decree is to start in 30 days and aims to expose to the population how abusive the local ICMS amount is, since it is calculated based on how much the government charges when the fuel leaves #Petrobras' refineries to gas stations (this tax is charged over any and every transaction, even over the same product, until it reaches the consumer end). The gov't is zeroing the ICMS at the federal level, and this means the amount in the receipt will show the customer precisely how much they are being charged locally. Strangely, the president of #PROCON (a public institution that deals with abuses against the consumer) in #SaoPaulo stated that they won't inspect gas stations that don't inform their ICMS in receipts unless SP's General-Attorney's Office recommends them to. No other PROCON, so far, has expressed resistance to do their natural job.
- The ex-secretary (minister) of #Bolsonaro's #DepartmentofJustice (#MinistryofJustice) and lead judge in the #LavaJato operation #SergioMoro, who has 'antagonizingly' been giving his opinion on almost everything related to politics since he left the government last year—accusing Bolsonaro of interference in the federal police, promising to prove it, and never doing it—strangely hasn't said a word about #DanielSilveira's case, and people are starting to take notice. #carwash #moro
- Several #Brazil(ian) states is putting a curfew in place, and in some places, not even deliveries will be allowed. Restarting in-person classes was also delayed in many places. #SaoPaulo is one of the states adopting the radical measures. The public transport in some of these places will be reduced, increasing agglomeration. The reason behind this measure is, for some, to destabilize the government, and for others it goes beyond, to allow #China and globalism-oriented groups to buy companies in financial difficulty.
- Truckers in #SãoPaulo rallied in protest against the state's governor #JoãoDória. It was a big one; 500 trucks. He has been the most vocal pro-lockdown governor and, apart from his decree to a new lockdown time, which has enraged part of the population and many mayors, leading to protests and some disobedience, he's raising the #ICMS tax ('tax over transactions of goods and services').