"The House's answer will be no, to whatever tax on financial transactions, under any name you can choose," Maia told reporters.
Maia made the remarks a day after Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes announced the taxation proposal, saying it would serve to cut Brazilians' "cruel" payroll taxes.
In addition, according to Guedes, the new tax would be different from the unpopular so-called CPMF financial transactions tax that was introduced in 1993 as a temporary measure to subsidize Brazil's public healthcare system and ran until 2007.
The CPMF tax was a 0.38 percent charge on all financial transactions in Brazil, including checks. There has been a fear for its return in the South American country, where the government has made it a priority to reform the complex tax system in order to reduce the overall tax burden and stimulate economic growth.
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