PEC Kamikaze became PEC virtuous of kindness, says Guedes

In the opinion of the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, a change of focus improved the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that is being processed in Congress. “From PEC Kamikaze, it became the virtuous PEC of kindness,” he said.

This Tuesday (12) the minister participated in a hearing at the CAE (Commission on Economic Affairs in the Senate) which dealt with, among other topics, the fuel issue, but the PEC gained space.

The measure raises social expenses until the end of the year. BRL 41.25 billion is planned to expand Auxílio Brasil and reduce the queue for the benefit, increase Auxílio Gás and create transfers to truck drivers and taxi drivers, among other measures.

The minister himself had adopted the term Kamikaze to designate the proposal when it included a fuel stabilization fund and transfers to states to cover losses with the reduction of ICMS.

“All of this here is direct income transfer, that’s why I prefer the name PEC of kindness. Quantitatively, it is less than a third of the expense of what was the PEC Kamikaze and, qualitatively, it is much higher,” he said.

“Instead of subsidies for cheap gasoline, for speedboats, for planes, it brings layers of protection for the most vulnerable.”

According to Guedes, the concern of the government and Congress is to assist the most fragile. “We’re not going to let people cook with firewood,” he said.

He also thanked what he called “the helping hand of Congress” in approving measures that will benefit the population.

Neither the minister nor the Senators commented on the fact that the PEC was being questioned for creating a state of emergency to allow additional spending, outside the limit of the spending ceiling, during an election period.

The measure was approved in the Senate with only 1 vote against, that of Senator José Serra (PSDB). Now, the proposal is going through the House.

In his presentation, the minister also questioned the states for reacting against the reduction of the ICMS rate on fuels, including the fact that they had appealed against the measures in the STF (Supreme Federal Court).

“Nobody transferred so much resources to the states, it was more than R$ 500 billion”, stated Guedes. “Food goes up, oil goes up and they don’t want to share it [os ganhos]?