Ten days before the first round of the elections, the Ministry of Economy announced this Thursday (22) the need for a new block of BRL 2.6 billion in the 2022 Budget to avoid an overflow in the spending ceiling, the rule that limits the advance of expenses to the variation of inflation.
as showed the Sheetthe containment in spending will affect parliamentary amendments that were released just two weeks ago, which angered members of the National Congress and created confusion among allies of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government – who had been benefiting from the measure.
The blockade hinders the plans of the Speaker of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, who wanted to speed up the execution of the so-called rapporteur’s amendments in view of the risk of setback in judgment in the STF (Supreme Court Federal) on the legality of the instrument.
The rapporteur’s amendments are used as a bargaining chip in political negotiations with Congress and tend to favor allies of the Planalto Palace.
With the new blockade, the total of expenses that are blocked rises to R$ 10.5 billion.
On September 6, Bolsonaro issued a decree to anticipate the release of BRL 3.5 billion in rapporteur amendments and another BRL 2.1 billion for ministries, in the expectation that the bimonthly budget assessment report would then point to the feasibility of such relief.
But that’s not what the report shows. Government technicians identified an unexpected growth in expenses with social security benefits, which reduced budget space.
The difficulty occurs mainly because Social Security expenses rose R$ 5.6 billion, thanks to the reduction of the INSS (National Social Security Institute) queue, which was close to 1.7 million requests on hold in April and fell to 1 .1 million in August. Spending on BPC (Benefício de Prestação Continuada), paid to the elderly and low-income people with disabilities, also increased.
If, on the one hand, the reduction in the queue is a relief for the insured, who only receive the amounts after the analysis of the benefit application by the agency, it also means an additional bill for the government – which takes space from the spending ceiling. Until now, the high queue ended up fulfilling a cost containment role.
