Reinstated at Acese, Alexandre Porto defends micro and small businesses.

Valter Lima, from Sergipe 247 – The president of the Commercial Association of Sergipe (Acese), Alexandre Porto, was reinstated in office on the afternoon of this Friday (8) for the 2013/2015 term, arguing that the Government should review a way of implementing tax substitution, without harming micro and small businesses. 

“Today, micro and small businesses are experiencing an exceptional moment. The numbers are all positive, but there are signs that, with the implementation of tax substitution, this could begin to change. That is our concern and our warning,” said Porto, in an interview with Sergipe 247.

According to him, Sergipe and other states are beginning to implement this taxation mechanism, which invalidates the Simples Nacional (Simplified National Tax System), created to unify taxes for small and micro-enterprises. “The states want to collect more revenue because they lost money when the Simples was implemented and now they want to recover, but this exposes the vulnerabilities of micro and small businesses. They will be the ones who suffer from this, because those under the normal tax regime will not,” he explained.

Alexandre Porto emphasizes, however, that tax substitution is a positive thing because it prevents tax evasion, since the product will already have the tax paid, logistics will be better for the business owner, and it will be better for fair competition. "The problem is that the substitution has the effect of nullifying the Simples tax regime for the calculation of ICMS (a state sales tax)," he said. The president of Acese argues that a "compensation mechanism" should be found for micro and small businesses.

“If a solution cannot be found for now, the best course of action is to postpone the implementation of the tax substitution for a while, so that micro and small businesses do not lose the rights they have already gained under the General Law for Micro and Small Businesses. And the moment the tax substitution is implemented, these companies automatically lose those rights,” he stated. He noted that a schedule has already been defined with the State Treasury Department for 2013.

Alexandre Porto says that if they lose competitiveness, micro and small businesses will face many problems because they have no way to reduce costs other than laying off employees. “They don't have high rent, they don't have high energy costs, they don't have much room to cut. So they will cut employee costs. This is a concern we have. The consequences of applying the tax substitution to these companies will be very drastic, and they will have difficulty reversing the situation,” he warned.

Photo: Marcos Rodrigues/ASN