The vote on the Annual Budget Bill (Ploa) for 2022 was postponed, today (20), by the Mixed Budget Commission (CMO) of the Congress, formed by deputies and senators. The text sets out expected federal revenues and expenditures for the coming year and, traditionally, is approved before the legislative recess.
The final opinion of the general rapporteur, Deputy Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ), was scheduled to be considered this Monday at the CMO from 10 am, followed by a vote in plenary by the deputies and senators, in the afternoon. The commission’s session, however, was suspended and should be resumed tomorrow (21).
At the beginning of the meeting, earlier this afternoon, the president of the CMO, senator Rose de Freitas (MDB-ES), said that the opinion was presented around 3:00 am and there was not enough time for lawmakers to analyze the matter.
Parliamentarians also have technical questions about some points in the text, which should be debated with the rapporteur and the Ministry of Economy throughout the day. Among these points are the resources destined to education, paralyzed works and the salaries of health agents.
The electoral fund, intended to finance campaigns, is also a controversial point on the matter, on which there is still no consensus. Last week, the National Congress overturned a presidential veto and, with that, increased the value of the electoral fund from BRL 2 billion to more than BRL 5.7 billion. In August, President Jair Bolsonaro had vetoed this expansion, when it sanctioned the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) of 2022.
The section, which was previously vetoed, is now ready for enactment, but it can still be changed in the PLOA’s analysis. In the proposal, the rapporteur Hugo Leal foresees the allocation of R$ 5.1 billion to fund political campaigns, more than double the approximately R$ 2 billion reserved in the previous campaign. According to Rose de Freitas, a good part of the commission wants the value to be reduced.
Resource allocation
The total amount of expenditure contained in the opinion is R$ 4.8 trillion, of which R$ 1.8 trillion are public debt refinancing. The primary deficit projection is R$79.3 billion for the fiscal and social security budgets, lower than the target foreseen in the LDO 2022, of a deficit of R$170.5 billion. The primary deficit represents the result of the government’s accounts, disregarding the payment of interest on the public debt.
This primary result projection reflects the combination of the net increase in the Union’s primary revenue and the increase in primary expenditure, which is anchored in the fiscal margin generated by the expansion of the spending ceiling with the enactment of the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) of the Precatory, which changed the formula for calculating the updating of the limits. The measure opened up a fiscal space of R$110 billion in the 2022 Budget.
Among others, the funds will be used to pay the Brazilian Aid. The final report allocates R$89 billion to serve 17.9 million families in the federal government’s new social program.
In the original text of the budget sent by the Executive, the court orders to be paid next year reached R$ 89.1 billion. With the approval of the PEC, the opinion of the PLOA rapporteur provides that the government will have to pay R$ 45.6 billion in court orders, which are debts incurred by the Union after court decisions.
The primary revenues of the federal government are expected to exceed the R$ 2 trillion mark.
The text of Ploa also brings the value of R$ 1,210 for the minimum wage. It is BRL 41.44 higher than the BRL 1,169 estimated by the government in the budget proposal for 2022, in August, and is due to the rise in inflation in recent months.
The forecast for an increase in the National Consumer Price Index (INPC), which serves as the basis for the annual correction of the minimum, rose from 8.4%, in August, to 10.04%. The exact index of the minimum wage correction, however, will only be really known in early January, when the increase in the INPC for the final year of 2021 is announced.
*With information from the Chamber and Senate agencies
