Freight MP: value of R$5,000 for the floor will be removed from the text; amnesty for fines should be vetoed, says government leader in Congress

It is common to see trucks transporting oranges on the roads of the citrus belt in the interior of SP Fábio Tito/g1 The government leader in the National Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), stated this Monday (13) that the senators are working to build an agreement to vote this week on the provisional measure (MP) that changes the rules on the minimum level of road freight. Randolfe indicated that the Senate will maintain the mandatory minimum, as already stated in the law, but without defining the value of this minimum. In previous votes, in the commission created to discuss the MP and in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, parliamentarians stipulated a national minimum wage of R$5,000 per month for truck drivers who travel long distances. According to the leader, the section will be removed during the vote in the Senate plenary, scheduled between Tuesday (14) and Wednesday (15). Randolfe stated that the change will be considered a deletion, not an alteration of the text. As a result, the proposal would not need to return to the Chamber for a new vote. Although it has been in force since March, the MP depends on Congressional approval to become definitive law. If it is not analyzed by Thursday (16), the text will become invalid. When it was published in March, in the midst of the war in the Middle East, the main objective of the MP was to reinforce compliance with the minimum freight floor so that the values ??reflected the real costs of the transport operation, such as diesel and tolls. READ ALSO: In 2026, ANTT applied more than R$354 million in fines for not paying the minimum price in the freight table Calculation of the floor The MP toughens the punishments for companies that do not pay the floor, which is currently calculated by the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT). ?Created in 2018, the minimum freight price policy emerged as one of the main demands of truck drivers during the national strike that year. It determines that the table is readjusted whenever there is a fluctuation in the fuel value of more than 5%, either downwards or upwards. The mechanism was known at the time as a trigger. "There is an agreement to maintain the floor and we make an adjustment regarding the value, even because the STF jurisprudence says that it is not appropriate for Congress to decide on [a value of] the floor. So, there is an agreement with the truck drivers. We can have the floor, but without establishing the value", said Randolfe. Randolfe and the government leader in the Senate, Teresa Leitão (PT-PE), met with members of the opposition this Monday. The PP leader, Tereza Cristina (MS), and senator Jaime Bagattoli (PL-RO) also participated in the meeting. The PP leader explained, after the meeting, that increasing the minimum value, in the case of R$5,000, is a "foreign matter" for the MP. According to her, parliamentarians made “good progress”. "We are negotiating so that it can move forward and not expire. If there is an agreement, we will not present amendments," he said.