The Senate is racing against time to pass, before the parliamentary recess in July, a proposal that reduces the impacts on the population of the increase in fuel prices.
This Friday (24), Senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho (MDB-PE), rapporteur of the proposed amendment to the Constitution 16/22 that has this objective, said that he intends to present his report to his colleagues as early as next Monday afternoon. (27). The intention is to try to vote on the text in the House next week and send it to the Chamber of Deputies.
New proposal
Without the support of state governors, in a press conference this morning, Bezerra said that the Senate will abandon the initial proposal of the PEC to compensate for the reduction of ICMS on diesel. The emedebista also added that, to “avoid fights” with the heads of state executives, zeroing the ICMS on cooking gas is also no longer under discussion.
The report to be presented next week will bring four new measures. All of them valid only until December 31, 2022. One of the proposals provides for the expansion of the Gas Aid. The idea is that the initiative, which will cost the government R$ 1.5 billion, will allow the beneficiaries to receive the equivalent of the value of a gas cylinder every two months. The measure’s justification is to minimize the impact of the LPG price on the poorest families.
The second is the granting of a voucher worth R$ 1,000 to autonomous cargo carriers. Estimated at R$ 5.4 billion, the aid will help around 900,000 truck drivers who have suffered from the rise in the price of diesel. They must receive five installments of the aid. Bezerra added that, although other categories such as taxi drivers and app drivers also claim similar assistance, there is a consensus among parliamentarians that the focus, at this moment, should be on cargo transport and public transport “which have more immediate effects on several production chains”.
Regarding public passenger transport, the text that will be presented will compensate companies for the gratuity for the elderly, provided for in the Elderly Statute. In this case, the cost would be R$ 2.5 billion. The intention is to relieve the system, which was also affected by the rise in the price of diesel.
The last measure that will be in Bezerra Coelho’s text is the increase by R$ 200, on an emergency basis, of Auxílio Brasil. In this case, by the end of this year, the cost will be R$ 21.6 billion. The justification for the increase in aid, according to the senator, is the exacerbation of the Brazilian inflationary scenario and the double-digit inflation that has consumed the income of the poorest.
electoral legislation
With the exception of the voucher for walkers, which, according to the rapporteur, the legal advice of the Senate and the government are still focused on enabling and avoiding problems with the electoral legislation, the other benefits already exist and, according to him, would not be subject to legal questioning. In the case of truck drivers, the strategy is to try to recognize a state of emergency, given that the transport of cargo in Brazil is done almost entirely by road.
total impact
With a total impact of BRL 34.8 billion, that is, BRL 5 billion more than the originally planned amount of BRL 29.6 billion, Bezerra said that this is a package, an initiative of the Senate, which is being discussed with the government. Without making it clear whether the economic team is in agreement with the new values, the senator said that care is taken so that the impact is not too different from what the government has already predicted.
Ballast
Asked if the report will detail where the funds will come from to pay for the benefits, Bezerra said that the senators will propose the opening of extraordinary credits.
According to him, it will be up to the federal government to analyze whether they will be necessary since Congress will make the text of public spending more flexible by R$ 34.8 billion. The rapporteur added that, like the states, the Union has “an extraordinary collection” this year. For him, the government will have the ballast to pay for the measures, without increasing the public debt.
