The Mixed Budget Committee (CMO) of Congress approved this Tuesday night (17) the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) 2025 project. The text establishes the Union’s priorities and fiscal target for the following year, in addition to guide the preparation of the Budget itself, the text of which will still need to be passed by the CMO.
With progress in the joint commission, the LDO text will now be analyzed by parliamentarians in a joint session of the National Congress, which brings together deputies and senators, scheduled for this Wednesday (18).
The proposal kept the primary result target for 2025 at zero, with a tolerance margin of 0.25 percentage points of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for more or less. In absolute values, the LDO predicts that the primary result could vary between a deficit of R$31 billion and a primary surplus of R$31 billion in 2025, considering the tolerance margin.
Previously, the project’s rapporteur, senator Confúncio Moura (MDB-RO), had included in the text the government’s obligation to target only the center of the fiscal target of zero deficit throughout the year, without taking into account the lower band. However, the parliamentarian went back and removed this part of the opinion. According to him, 694 amendments were accepted to the text, which has around a thousand pages.
The project was approved with a minimum wage forecast of R$1,502 for 2025. The value is the same as predicted by the Ministry of Finance when the government sent the text to Congressin April this year, and follows the current rules for valuing the minimum wage, which may be changed if the spending cuts package of the government is even approved this week.
No contingency
In the final report approved by the CMO, some budget expenses were protected from spending contingencies over the next year, preventing the federal government from cutting these expenses to meet the fiscal target.
Among the expenses that cannot be frozen are: Border System; National Forestry Development Fund; Superintendency of the Manaus Free Trade Zone (Suframa); support for indigenous populations; National Fund for Children and Adolescents; National Fund for the Elderly; analyzes for the granting of mining titles with supervision of the mining of strategic mineral resources; acquisition and distribution of food from family farming to promote food and nutritional security; agricultural defense; rural insurance; and others.
Party background and amendments
The approved text establishes that the Special Financial Assistance Fund for Political Parties, the Partisan Fund, must be adjusted according to the rules of the new fiscal framework in 2025, limited to up to 2.5% above the previous year’s inflation.
Regarding parliamentary amendments for special transfers, the so-called Pix amendments, Confúncio Moura’s report determines that the work plan must be informed in advance, with the object and value of the transfer. The lack of a plan may result in suspension of the implementation of the amendment.
Another LDO rule provides that federal transfers to municipalities with a population of less than 65 thousand inhabitants that are in default will not be prohibited.
