Guedes says that giving a salary increase would be dishonorable after asking for R$ 2.5 billion from police officers

Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) said this Friday (17) that granting adjustments to all employees would be a dishonor for future generations, a day after he asked Congress to set aside R$ 2.5 billion for increases for police officers to request of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

“There are already people wanting to dishonor their commitment to contemporaries, saying ‘I’ve already had my vaccine, give me my raise’. For now, it’s a disgrace to contemporaries,” he said in a year-end interview to the press.

“If everyone has these increases, it is a disgrace to future generations. Then inflation will return, we will plunge into a dark past, we will snowball into debt. Our role is to ensure that this does not happen,” he said.

The reference to future generations is often used by Guedes to talk about the need to use public resources in such a way that they are financed by the current population, and not turned into public debt to be paid by the next ones.

He denied that he had asked the police for the readjustment (despite having signed an official letter asking Congress to reserve the resources) and said that he even tried to block the proposal, saying that the measure would open up pressure from other public servants, such as auditors from the Internal Revenue Service.

According to him, the president was sensitive to the category’s appeal. “It’s a political request,” he said.

Guedes revealed that the amount requested from Congress would also include two other categories — but he said he would not reveal which ones so that there would be more pressure for readjustments.

In the case of police officers, the minister also admitted that he had instructed the rest of the government to say that it was not about a readjustment —but about a career reorganization, as a way to avoid readjustments to the rest of the civil servants. “If everyone starts asking, inflation will go to 15%, 20%, then the poor are the ones who suffer, then Brazil Aid will cost R$600,” he said.

After questioning the subject, Guedes said that the increase for police officers is suspended and that it will still be decided by the government.

The defense for readjustments was taken over by Bolsonaro, who acted directly to ensure the restructuring of police careers in the federal government. The movement triggered pressure from other categories, such as auditors from the Internal Revenue Service.

On the last 8th, in an interview, the president even defended a broad adjustment, reaching all categories. He said the measure would be taken without breaking the spending ceiling.

“It would have [que ser reajuste de] 3%, 4%, 5%, 2%… Let it be 1%. This is the idea. Because we are completing three years in my government without readjustment. Now, the readjustment is not to restore all the inflation, because we don’t have space for that”, Bolsonaro said in an interview to Gazeta do Povo newspaper.

In government calculations, each 1% increase has an impact of R$ 3 billion. A 5% readjustment, therefore, would have an additional cost of R$15 billion in 2022.

Throughout this year, the government was studying a readjustment for civil servants, but due to the limited fiscal space, it was verified that the readjustment would be very low. So, the choice was made by increasing it to just a few categories.

Guedes also acknowledged that there is impoverishment in the country due to inflation.

“Some will say that Brazil is poorer. Yes, wars make impoverishment,” he said in a year-end interview to the press.

Despite this, he claims that the price hike is a global movement driven by inflation and, therefore, the government cannot be blamed.

“There was inflation. Yes, all over the world. Retirement wages, rents lost purchasing power because there was a shock in global supply chains,” he said.