The federal government paid BRL 1.145 billion in state arrears in February this year, the National Treasury Secretariat (STN) reported today (7). Of this total, R$818.64 million were related to delinquencies in the State of Minas Gerais, R$255.24 million in the State of Goiás, R$66.76 million in the State of Rio de Janeiro and R$5.13 million in State of Rio Grande do Norte.
In the accumulated result for the year, the Federal Government paid R$ 1.55 billion in guaranteed debts from subnational entities. The states that had the highest amounts paid in the year were: Minas Gerais (R$968.09 million, or 62.57% of the total), Goiás (R$334.54 million, or 21.62% of the total) and Rio de Janeiro (R$ 234.12 million, or 15.13% of the total).
The guarantees represent the assets offered by the Union – represented by the National Treasury – to cover possible defaults on loans and financing from states, municipalities and other entities with national banks or foreign institutions, such as the IDB, IBRD and the World Bank. As the guarantor of the operations, he is informed by the 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 the defaults, but deducts the amount covered by blocking ordinary federal transfers, in addition to preventing new financing.
The secretariat said that it monitors any delays in payment of contracts guaranteed by the Union, “establishing deadlines for the settlement of pending issues and alerting debtors to the sanctions, penalties and consequences provided for in the contracts and in the relevant legislation.”
There are cases, however, of blocking the execution of counter-guarantees. Between 2019 and 2021, several states that obtained injunctions in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) suspending the execution.
“The Union is prevented from executing the counter-guarantees of several states that obtained injunctions in the STF suspending the execution of said counter-guarantees and also those related to the State of Goiás, which is under the Tax Recovery Regime (RRF) established by Complementary Law No. of May 19, 2017 (amended by Complementary Law No. 178, of January 13, 2021)”, said the Secretariat.
Last year, the Union paid R$ 8.96 billion in debts owed to subnational entities. The amount refers to the debts of five states and one municipality. The highest amounts honored were BRL 4.18 billion related to defaults in Rio de Janeiro, BRL 3.13 billion in Minas Gerais, BRL 1.30 billion in Goiás, BRL 194.32 in Amapá, BRL 156, 98 million from Rio Grande do Norte and R$1.56 million from the municipality of Belford Roxo (RJ).
In total, since 2016, the Federal Government has made the payment of R$ 43.46 billion in order to honor guarantees in credit operations.
