The federal government paid R$ 1.08 billion in arrears of states and municipalities in December, informed today (9) the National Treasury Secretariat. The numbers refer to debts guaranteed by the Union and not honored by seven states and are included in the Report on Guarantees Honored by the Union in credit operations.
There were R$ 643.62 million related to default in Rio de Janeiro; R$141.29 million from Pernambuco; R$76.2 million from Goiás; R$60.27 million from Rio Grande do Sul; R$57.57 million from Maranhão; R$43.39 million from Piauí; R$ 24.98 million from Alagoas and R$ 32.06 million from the municipality of Taubaté (SP).
In the year 2022, the Union honored BRL 9.78 billion in guaranteed debts of subnational entities. The highest amounts paid were for the states of Rio de Janeiro (R$ 3.98 billion, or 40.64% of the total), Minas Gerais (R$ 1.98 billion, or 20.23% of the total), Goiás (R$ 1.29 billion, or 13.17% of the total) and Rio Grande do Sul (R$ 886.57 million, or 9.06% of the total).
In total, since 2016, the Union has paid BRL 51.69 billion to honor guarantees in credit operations.
The guarantees represent the assets offered by the Union – represented by the National Treasury – to cover possible defaults on loans and financing by states, municipalities and other entities with national banks or foreign institutions, such as the IDB, Bird and the World Bank. As guarantor of the operations, he is informed by creditors that a certain portion of the contract has not been settled.
If the entity does not fulfill its obligations within the stipulated period, the Treasury compensates for defaults, but discounts the amount covered by blocking ordinary federal transfers, in addition to preventing new financing.
The Treasury Secretariat said that it monitors any delays in payment of contracts guaranteed by the Union, setting deadlines for settling pending issues, as well as “alert debtors to the sanctions, penalties and consequences provided for in contracts and in the relevant legislation.”
If the federative entity does not settle pending issues, such as cases of honor of endorsement or delay in payments of guaranteed credit operations, it is prevented from obtaining a guarantee from the Union for new financing contracts for up to 12 months.
There are cases, however, of blocking the execution of counter-guarantees, due to court decisions. The secretariat clarifies, however, that the value of each honored guarantee is updated daily by the Selic, the basic interest rate, from the date of the honor.
“The Union is also prevented from executing counter-guarantees due to some court decisions. Such counter-guarantees refer to honored guarantees from the states of Alagoas, Maranhão, Pernambuco and Piauí, in addition to the municipality of Taubaté-SP,” informed the Treasury Secretariat.
