The budget rapporteur in the National Congress, senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), informed this Monday (28) that he had filed the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) for the Transition. The text excludes the Auxílio Brasil program, which should be renamed Bolsa Família, from the spending cap rule for the coming years. The measure presented by the senator is a way of making it possible to maintain the minimum value of R$ 600 for the income transfer program, in addition to establishing an additional value of R$ 150 per child under 6 years of age for each beneficiary. This is one of the main campaign commitments of President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
In force since 2017, the constitutional spending ceiling rule limits the growth of public expenditure, except for the payment of interest on the public debt, to the growth of inflation in the previous year. To start processing, the text still needs to be signed by at least 26 senators, which should happen this week.
Earlier, Castro said that the ideal thing is for the PEC to be approved by December 10, since on the 16th of the same month he must present his final report on the 2023 Budget, which needs to be approved before the end of the year. To be approved, the PEC needs to pass in two shifts, both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies. The approval quorum required in each of the two Houses is three-fifths of the total number of parliamentarians.
The text of the Transition PEC presented by Marcelo Castro is practically the same as the draft sent by the elected government, but with one change. Initially, the exclusion of Bolsa Família from the spending cap would be permanent, but as this rule was not well received in the political world and among economic agents, the new government decided to set a deadline, which is now 4 years, covering the period of the next management. The proposal, however, must still undergo further changes during the course of the Legislative Power.
“Of course, all of this is going to be the result of intense negotiations and anyone who covers the National Congress knows that it is rare for a story to enter Congress and leave the same way it entered”, pondered Marcelo Castro, shortly before entering a meeting with the president-elect Lula, at the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center (CCBB), in Brasília, seat of the transitional government.
According to the calculations of the amounts provided for in the Budget Bill (PLOA) for 2023, maintaining Bolsa Família at R$600 would have a total cost of up to R$175 billion.
“It has no value in the PEC. It has the withdrawal of the Bolsa Família which, based on the values foreseen in the PLOA, can be up to R$ 175 [bilhões]?? The elected government submitted this proposal for evaluation by the National Congress, we will wait for the evaluation and then we will manifest ourselves”, said former Minister of Finance and Planning Nelson Barbosa, member of the government transition team in the economic area.
“The fact is that there is no provision in the 2023 Budget for maintaining the Auxílio Brasil, or new Bolsa Família, at the current value. So, it is urgent to guarantee the maintenance of this value, there are millions of people who depend on this benefit for their day by day,” added Barbosa.
Other changes
In addition to excluding the Bolsa Família program from the spending cap rule for the next 4 years, the Transition PEC proposes to use revenues obtained from excess collections for public investments, limited to approximately R$ 23 billion. The other item in the PEC proposal is to exclude from the spending cap rule extra resources obtained through agreements and services provided by public universities, in addition to donations made by international funds for actions in the socio-environmental area. Thus, these institutions would not have these resources deducted by the spending ceiling rule, as is currently the case.
