The mandatory spending cut package will be announced by Tuesday (26), Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said this Thursday (21). On Monday (25) morning, said the minister, the economic team will forward to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the draft of the acts, which involve sending to Congress at least one proposed amendment to the Constitution and a draft complementary law.
The final meeting with Lula, Haddad informed, is scheduled for 10 am on Monday, at Palácio do Planalto. According to the minister, only details of the texts to be sent will be defined, and Lula closed his Monday morning agenda to dedicate himself exclusively to the subject.
“We’re going to hit him. [Lula] the writing of one or another detail, including the agreement that was made with [o Ministério da Defesa]which he only learned informally from me today. We will discuss the newsroom with him and, at the end of Monday’s meeting, we will be ready to publish. Then we will do it on Monday or Tuesday. It is a decision that communication [do governo] will take, but the actions are already limited”, declared Haddad.
The Finance Minister reiterated that the economic team advanced some measures to the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), and to the leaders of the allied base parties. Without providing figures on the impact of the measures, Haddad stated that the package is sufficient to guarantee compliance with the fiscal framework.
“The fiscal framework is a rule that is excellent for us to aim for budget balance and work on our debt trajectory [púbica]the fall in interest rates will resume at some point, at some point in the near future, so that we have the peace of mind to continue growing with inflation within the target, aiming for the center, which is what we want. So, by Tuesday, we will have a definition”, highlighted the minister.
Regarding the cut in spending on military pensions, Haddad said that the savings will be a little more than R$2 billion per year. “It is difficult to make the calculation because the data is not available to Planning and MGI [Ministério da Gestão e Inovação em Serviços Públicos] according to the server sheet. But the impact is a little higher than that, but that’s the order of magnitude”, he commented.
This afternoon, Haddad would meet with Lula to close the package, but the meeting was postponed until Monday because a meeting between the president and the retail industry went on longer than expected. At around 6pm, Haddad met with the ministers of the Budget Execution Board (JEO) to define the size of the spending block to be announced this Friday (22).
The JEO is made up of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, and the ministers of the Civil House, Rui Costa; Planning and Budget (Simone Tebet); and Management and Innovation in Public Services, Esther Dweck.
