Supreme Court ruling removes Alagoas from CAUC (Unified Registry of Federal Taxpayers).
A preliminary injunction granted by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) prevents the State of Alagoas from being registered in the Union's default databases due to tax arrears found in the Legislative Assembly and the Court of Auditors; the favorable decision was made by Minister Celso de Mello.
Alagoas247 - The Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) granted an injunction in favor of the State of Alagoas, preventing the Executive Branch from being registered in the Union's default registries (Cauc/Cadin/Siafi), due to financial and fiscal issues found in the State Legislative Assembly (ALE) and the State Court of Auditors (TCE-AL).
The decision rendered in Original Civil Action (ACO) 2661 was made by Minister Celso de Mello. The understanding was that, since the branches of government are independent and autonomous, the Executive cannot be held responsible for fulfilling an obligation assumed by the Legislative branch, 'since it is not legally jointly liable for said obligation'.
According to the Attorney General of the State, Francisco Malaquias, the action brought by the PGE (Attorney General's Office of the State of Alagoas) seeks to safeguard Alagoas' right to remain up-to-date with its registration status, especially since it cannot be held responsible for existing problems in the financial services of other branches of government.
“Several state programs, developed by the Executive branch, of immense social value, are being hampered due to a lack of compliance with the Cauc/Cadin/Siafi databases, even though this problem did not originate within the Executive branch, which violates the principle of autonomy,” Malaquias explained.
The Attorney General is critical of the model adopted by the Union for registering states in the default registries. “For the practice of these acts, it is necessary, for example, to present certificates of fiscal regularity, in addition to compliance with budgetary rules and the Fiscal Responsibility Law, plus regularity in Cadin/Cauc/Siafi, among other requirements, which, in themselves, already represent unconstitutionality due to a breach of the autonomy of the federated entities, since the situation denotes a clear subordination,” observed Malaquias, adding that the Union “conducts a tax collection system that does not even allow discussion about outstanding debts with the states and ends up penalizing the federated entities.”
Social and economic issue
To make matters worse, the state of Alagoas depends on constant federal transfers for development programs, whether in the area of basic infrastructure, public services, security, health, tourism expansion and, especially, services for the low-income population.
“Without the immediate return of these funds, the State of Alagoas will be unable to carry out extremely important social projects, to the serious detriment of its population, especially those with low incomes. Indeed, it is this population that basically comprises the projects that are hindered by the inclusion of the State of Alagoas in the Register of Delinquent Debtors,” explained the prosecutor.
According to the understanding adopted by Minister Celso de Mello, the registration of the state Executive branch implies a violation of the principle of non-transcendence or personal nature of sanctions and restrictive measures of a legal nature. The rapporteur highlighted that this principle has been reaffirmed by the Supreme Court justices in several decisions, citing precedents in this regard. The decision in the ACO (Direct Action of Unconstitutionality) must be ratified by the full Supreme Court.