The Ministry of Economy informed this Tuesday (22) that it will release R$ 37 million immediately for the Federal Police to resume issuing passports. The service was suspended last Saturday (19) due to lack of funds.
Another R$ 37 million should be unlocked during the month of December, after the approval of a supplementary credit bill by the National Congress.
The special secretary for the Treasury and Budget, Esteves Colnago, said that the chairman of the CMO (Mixed Budget Commission), deputy Celso Sabino (União Brasil-PA), has undertaken to expedite the processing of the proposal.
“We are not going to run out of passports, they will be supplemented,” stated the Federal Budget secretary at the Ministry of Economy, Ariosto Culau. According to him, it is an essential government service.
The release of the first installment of funds must occur after an act specific to the Economy, which speeds up the recomposition. With the approval of the project in Congress, the full request of R$ 74 million would be met.
The Ministry of Justice had been asking for replenishment of resources since September, as shown by the Sheet🇧🇷 So far, however, the Ministry of Economy has not had space to meet the demand.
Two months ago, the government needed to raise the blockade in the 2022 Budget to R$ 10.5 billion to avoid an overflow in the spending ceiling – a fiscal rule that prevents the growth of expenses above inflation.
This Tuesday, the Economy announced a new blockade of R$ 5.7 billion. The cut increases the chances of a public service blackout in the final stretch of President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) term.
The PF carries out the service of issuing passports through a contract with the Mint. The action’s current allocation is BRL 217.9 million, and the entire amount has already been committed (the first phase of spending, when the government commits to the purchase of the good or service).
The amount effectively paid by the agency is also close to the available limit. The high execution of the budget foreseen for passports indicates that there is indeed a bottleneck.
“The service’s online scheduling and service at PF posts will continue to function normally. However, there is no forecast for delivery of the requested passport until the budget situation is normalized”, informed the Federal Police in a note on Friday (18) .
The citizen pays a fee of BRL 257.25 for issuing the passport, but the money does not remain with the Federal Police. It goes to the National Treasury single account. The use of the resource depends on the availability of space in the Budget.
This is not the first time that issuing passports has been suspended due to lack of funds. In 2017, the PF suspended the service, and the government ended up forwarding a request for credit opening to contemplate the corporation.
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