Government extends deadline for payment of Pronampe on the eve of the second round

Three days before the second round of the elections, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) edited an MP (provisional measure) this Thursday (27) to extend the payment term of Pronampe (National Support Program for Microenterprises and Small Businesses) .

The program was approved by Congress and sanctioned by the Chief Executive and stipulated a period of 36 months for small businesses to repay the loan. Now, Bolsonaro has determined that the term be extended to 72 months.

The MP has to be approved by the Legislature in order not to lose its effectiveness. Pronampe is one of the main instruments used by Bolsonaro to claim that he helped small entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In April, the president had already sanctioned the law that extends until the end of 2024 the allocation of resources earmarked for program loans.

This Thursday (27), the president announced the publication of the MP. “Today’s provisional measure, another good news: for the people who are in Pronampe, people who are in the program to renegotiate the operations of the National Program for Support to Microenterprises and Small Businesses, the payment term of the program will be extended to up to 72 months,” he said.

The Ministry of Economy reported that all open contracts could benefit from the new measure. “The MP makes it possible to renegotiate with the new term without obliging financial institutions, leaving [a elas] the renegotiation of new terms, including defaulted contracts”, says the ministry.

According to the ministry, the period has increased to a maximum of 72 months, and 500,000 companies will be able to renegotiate.

This is not the first time that the president has used the Executive Branch to adopt measures in the midst of the campaign that could benefit him electorally.

The government launched a series of actions seeking positive effects on the campaign, such as anticipation of the payment of social benefits by Caixa, inclusion of new families in the Auxílio Brasil program, debt forgiveness of indebted families and appointment of PF (Federal Police) and PRF (Federal Highway Police).