Four months before the elections, the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government plans to pay up to R$1,000 monthly in aid to self-employed truck drivers as a way to soften the impact of high fuel prices on this group, which is one of the pillars of the president’s electoral base.
The amount has been discussed among members of the Palácio do Planalto, parliamentarians and members of the Ministry of Economy.
If confirmed, the monthly transfer to truck drivers will be more than double the floor of R$ 400 paid today to families in the Auxílio Brasil program, which includes people in poverty or extreme poverty. The average benefit is R$ 409.30, according to data from June.
as showed the Sheetin May there was a waiting list of 764,500 families already qualified for the program, but who do not receive the benefit due to lack of funds within the spending ceiling — a rule that limits the advance of expenses to the variation of inflation.
The expenses to pay for the new package of measures, which includes aid to truck drivers and the expansion of Auxílio Gás, will be made outside the ceiling. For this, the government articulates the inclusion of the provisions in a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution).
Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) has set a limit of R$5 billion for these new measures, according to government sources.
Government technicians are still raising the number of potential beneficiaries of aid to self-employed truck drivers, but the target audience is expected to be between 650,000 and 900,000 beneficiaries.
From this number and the limit, the value of the benefit can be defined by the parliamentarians themselves, according to sources in the economic area.
Behind the scenes, Pacheco and allies still defend the creation of a stabilization fund to directly subsidize the price of diesel, similar to the program carried out under the Michel Temer government (MDB) in response to the truck drivers’ strike in 2018.
The measure, however, faces stiff resistance from the economy and started to be rejected by Lira.
There is also an articulation to include a subsidy for the gratuity of the elderly in municipal public transport (city halls have been asking for R$ 5 billion) and a line of financing to Santas Casas, philanthropic medical institutions.
Despite the government’s willingness to contemplate truck drivers, the category criticizes the measure.
“Truck drivers don’t need alms, but dignity,” said Abrava (Brazilian Association of Motor Vehicle Drivers) president, Wallace Landim, known as Chorão. He defends the change in Petrobras’ pricing policy.
In the case of Auxílio Gás, one of the possibilities is to reduce the benefit payment interval, which would become monthly instead of bimonthly. Another option is to double the amount paid to families every two months.
Auxílio Gás was created in November last year and pays 50% of the value of a 13 kg gas cylinder to beneficiary families every two months. In June, the benefit amount is R$ 53, paid to 5.7 million families.
The expansion of Auxílio Gás should double the cost of the program, which currently varies between R$ 275 million and R$ 300 million per month.
Behind the scenes at the Ministry of Economy, the expectation is that, even with the additional measures, the total cost of the package against the increase in fuel prices will not exceed R$ 50 billion.
The agreement for the expansion of Auxílio Gás and for the creation of aid to truck drivers was made this Tuesday (21) at a meeting between the Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, and the mayors of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) , and from the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).
The benefits will be included in the PEC pending in the Senate, which authorizes a transfer of up to R$ 29.6 billion to the states in exchange for them to zero taxes on diesel and gas by the end of the year.
Another R$ 16.8 billion is foreseen in federal tax waivers with the exemption of PIS, Cofins and Cide on gasoline and ethanol until the end of the year.
In the Economy, however, there is an assessment that the amounts actually spent may fall below these forecasts, especially in the case of transfers to the states. Internal estimates indicate that the effect on the cash of regional governments may be smaller, that is, there is some slack in the amount to be authorized by the PEC.
On the other hand, in Congress, the appetite for expanding the measures continues.
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