Government prepares MP to pay Brazil Aid of R$ 400 in December

The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government is preparing a provisional measure to guarantee the minimum payment of R$ 400 to the beneficiary families of Auxílio Brasil in December, according to two government sources informed the sheet.

The text will also allow the government to define, through a decree, the extra amount to be paid in 2022. The technicians are working to finalize the MP in time for it to be published this Tuesday (7) in the Federal Official Gazette (DOU) .

Today, the average value of Auxílio Brasil is BRL 224.41, paid to 14.6 million families, but Bolsonaro has already promised a transfer of at least BRL 400 by the end of 2022, the year in which he will seek re-election .

The edition of the decree to ensure this amount next year depends, however, on the promulgation of the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatório, which changes the rule for calculating the spending ceiling (which limits the advance of expenses to inflation) and it also postpones the payment of part of the judicial debts of the Federal Government against which there is no longer any appeal.

The PEC will open a space of R$ 106.1 billion in the 2022 Budget, of which R$ 51.1 billion will be allocated to the expansion of the social program.

According to government technicians, the MP will predict that the amount of Brazil Aid for 2022 will be defined by means of a decree, which can only be edited after the approval of the PEC and also the modification of the Budget, to include the additional expense with the social program.

For payment in December, the Ministry of Citizenship will use funds that were already reserved for the Bolsa Família program —​brand of PT administrations—, now replaced by Auxílio Brasil.

According to a member of the government, the additional installment should cost close to R$ 3 billion for the month of December alone.

According to the calendar, this month’s payments begin next Friday (10), but Congress has not yet concluded the vote on the PEC on Precatório.

There was fear among government officials that the delay in approving the proposal would make it impossible to implement the program this month.

Even with the approval of the PEC in the Chamber of Deputies, at the beginning of November, Palácio do Planalto was already working with the edition of the MP as a kind of plan B to ensure payment of the R$ 400 still in December, in case the proposal is processed. in the Senate took longer than anticipated—which it turned out to be.

The Chamber concluded the vote on the PEC on November 9, but the text was altered in the Federal Senate, which makes it necessary to reconsider the decision by the deputies.

The presidents of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), are negotiating an agreement for the slicing up of the proposal, with the enactment of the part that was unchanged and that includes the change in the ceiling of spending.

This device, however, releases BRL 62.2 billion in the 2022 Budget, space that is insufficient to accommodate the additional spending on Brazil’s Aid in the next year, according to a government technician.

In addition, opposition government congressmen are threatening to appeal to the Supreme Court (STF), if part of the PEC is enacted before the new vote in the Chamber.

In early November, Minister João Roma (Citizenship) was already showing concern about the risk of delaying the PEC for Precatório in the Senate.

“If this procedure [no Senado] if extended until next month, this will make it impossible for the benefit of R$ 400 to reach Brazilians in December,” stated the minister on November 10, in an interview at Palácio do Planalto.

A sheet found that the absence of a perspective for the partial enactment of the PEC was a decisive factor in triggering the MP’s editing strategy, which ensures the payment of R$ 400 in December.

A meeting took place this Monday (6) between Pacheco and Lira to discuss the possibility of promulgating parts of the text, but, without seeing signs of progress on this front, the government considered that it was risky to wait any longer, since the payment needs start the next day 10.

Hours after the congressional summit, Pacheco held another meeting, this time with Senate bench leaders, to discuss slicing. Again, there were no advances and new negotiation rounds are scheduled for this Tuesday (7).

During the virtual meeting, the government leader, Fernando Bezerra (MDB-PE), presented a proposal that provided for the promulgation of the common parts and of just a few items of article 4 of the PEC of the Precatório. The proposal was rejected, precisely because this chapter deals with the linking of expenses that will be executed with the space opened by the approval of the PEC.

Senators resist promulgating the text without this binding, at the risk of giving the government carte blanche to spend the amount of R$106 billion in an election year as they wish.

Another possibility that was on the table was to run an extraordinary payroll in December, with only the additional installment for Brazil Aid to reach R$ 400, but the preference of the political wing of the government was to ensure greater transfer to families before the Christmas.

Although the MP guarantees the payment of the larger portion of the social benefit, the expansion of the number of benefited families will still depend on the approval and enactment of the PEC dos Precatórios.

According to the text that creates the Auxílio Brasil approved in Congress, the reduction of the waiting list depends on availability in the Budget.