The Chamber of Deputies approved, last night (9) in the second round of the Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution (PEC), which allows the payment of precatory orders and changes the calculation of the spending ceiling, releasing R$ 91.5 billion for the Budget next year. The base text was approved by 323 votes in favour, 172 votes against and one abstention. Lawmakers voted and rejected four highlights. The text goes on for analysis by the Senate, where it needs to be approved in two rounds, with at least two-thirds of the votes in favor.
In the early evening, the Plenary concludes the discussion of the highlights and approved the PEC in first round. After an agreement that broke the interstice (interval) of five sessions between the first and second round, the deputies discussed the text for just over an hour and voted on the base text in just 18 minutes.
The result of the approval of the second round was announced around 23:45.
The scoreboard on Tuesday showed an increase in the advantage of favorable votes in relation to the first round. Last week, the base text was approved by 312 votes in favor and 144 against, with just four votes beyond the 308 needed to pass changes to the Constitution.
The session lasts for almost twelve hours. Throughout the afternoon, deputies voted for the highlights in the first round. Only one highlight, authored by the New Party, was rejected, removing from the PEC the possibility that the government send, together with the budget proposal, a special authorization authorizing the non-compliance with the golden rule, a kind of limit for the public debt . The other highlights were approved.
Understand the PEC of Precatório
The PEC defines the amount of annual expenses with court orders, corrects their amounts exclusively by the Selic rate and changes the way to calculate the spending ceiling.
According to the approved basic text, the precatories for the payment of debts of the Union related to the former Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Elementary Education and the Valorization of Teaching (Fundef), the current Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and the Valorization of Professionals from Education (Fundeb), must be paid in three years, 40% in the first year, 30% in the second and 30% in the third year.
The approved wording includes the text of the special commission that discussed the proposal, according to which the limit of expenses with court orders will be valid until the end of the spending cap regime (2036). For next year, this limit will be defined by applying the Broad National Consumer Price Index (IPCA) accumulated to the amount paid in 2016 (R$ 19.6 billion).
The estimate is that the ceiling will be almost BRL 40 billion in 2022. Under current rules, government data indicate a payment with precatório of BRL 89 billion in 2022, compared to BRL 54.7 billion in 2021.
In practice, the PEC opens fiscal space in the Union Budget for the payment of the new assistance benefit created by the government, the Auxílio Brasil, which will have a monthly value of R$ 400.
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Matter updated at 11:49 pm
