Brasília, October 1, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The president of the Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship Commission (CCJ), Senator Edison Lobão (PFL-MA), once again postponed the indication of the name of the reporter of the tax reform proposal, at the request of party leaders. The announcement should be made tomorrow (2) at 2 P.M., and, until then, government and opposition leaders will be negotiating the initial items in the list of changes that the Senators want to make in the bill approved by the Deputies. The first meeting of the CCJ to discuss the tax reform will occur immediately following the indication of the reporter.

After the meeting of party leaders yesterday evening, the leader of the PMDB in the Senate, Renan Calheiros (AL), reaffirmed that, "if the position of reporter goes to the PMDB, the reporter will be Senator Romero Jucá." The tax reform is already being scrutinized in the CCJ, and the deadline for amendments is this week.

The leader of the minority bloc, Senator Efraim Morais (PFL-PB), affirmed, following the meeting, that the opposition parties are presenting the representatives of the government with their demands, at the same time as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met all day on Tuesday (30), at the Torto Farm, in Brasília, with the governors to discuss this matter.

"Before beginning the discussion of the tax reform, we are negotiating commitments and methods to steer the proposal with leaders of the government," Morais said.

For his part, the leader of the PSDB, Arthur Virgílio (AM), considered that, "if the government doesn't negotiate, the fruits it will gather from this tax reform monster will be increases in the Brazil risk factor and the wariness of investors."

This information comes from the Senate's web site. (DAS)