Commission votes Budget under pressure to approve civil servants readjustment in election year

The congressional commission responsible for analyzing the budget proposal for 2022 is expected to vote this Monday (20) on the final report by deputy Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ), with government requests to reserve R$ 2.5 billion for adjustments of civil servants in an election year.

The expectation is that the CMO (Joint Budget Commission) will meet in the morning to debate and vote on the general rapporteur’s opinion. With that, the text would be taken to the plenary of Congress in a session called for Monday afternoon.

On Thursday (16), the Ministry of Economy sent Leal and the president of the CMO, senator Rose de Freitas (MDB-ES), a letter asking that R$ 2.5 billion be reserved for salary adjustments for civil servants, but without citing categories.

Another R$355 million would be earmarked for financial expenses, which are not subject to the ceiling, and would pay for the Union’s contribution to the social security system for these employees.

Days earlier, in a meeting, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) had pressed for an increase in police officers, in an adjustment to be made in a project to restructure the careers of the Federal Police, Federal Highway Police and Depen (National Penitentiary Department).

The nod to the police takes place in a context in which the president needs to preserve the support of segments of voters, such as police officers and evangelicals, after the release of polls of voting intentions that are unfavorable to Bolsonaro.

The latest survey carried out by Datafolha shows former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with 48% in the first round, against 22% for Bolsonaro.

Privately, police officers had been expressing dissatisfaction with the government and complained that they had not received benefits for the past three years.

The rapporteur, however, defends that the readjustment is valid from July, which would reduce the impact of the measure to R$ 1.4 billion.

In early December, the government also sent a request for an adjustment in the 2022 Budget with a greater forecast for Brazil Aid, which started to have an average benefit calculated at R$ 415 next year.

The expansion of the social program that replaced Bolsa Família is another of the president’s bets to try to boost his candidacy for re-election in 2022.

The new number had been released before the vote on the second part of the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the precatoria, concluded last Wednesday (15).

According to the IFI (Independent Fiscal Institution) of the Federal Senate, the PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatório can give President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) an extra space of up to R$ 35.5 billion to spend in an election year . The organization estimates that the proposal will open a total slack of BRL 117.9 billion – initially, the forecast was that the open space would remain at BRL 106.1 billion.

The government intends that the adjustments made be accommodated in this space freed up by the rule that changes the spending ceiling — a mechanism that limits the advance of expenses to inflation — and postpones the payment of judicial debts of the Union against which there is no longer any appeal.

The government’s proposal to change the 2022 Budget also reserves R$ 39 billion for the correction of mandatory expenses due to the acceleration of inflation.

The government considers that the INPC, an index that corrects social benefits and pensions, will close the year at 10%. This would bring the minimum wage to R$1,210 in 2022, if there is only the replacement of purchasing power, with no real gain.

The Ministry of Economy also asked for the inclusion of BRL 7.5 billion in health expenses, of which BRL 4.5 billion with the purchase of vaccines, and BRL 1.9 billion to pay for gas assistance to needy families .

In all, the revisions to the 2022 Budget proposed by the Economy add up to R$ 103.4 billion. Another R$2.7 billion will be added to the ceilings of other Powers, such as the Legislative and Judiciary, which will also benefit from the revision in the spending limit.

On another front, the amount reserved for rapporteur amendments can reach R$ 16 billion – the ceiling provided for in a draft Congressional resolution approved in early December and which stipulated the maximum amount of resources as the total number of bench amendments and individual taxes.

The amendments became the subject of controversy because of their use as a political bargaining chip. Starting with the 2020 Budget, the top of Congress began to implement a maneuver with the objective of maintaining its power as a bargaining chip — taking advantage of the political weakness of the Bolsonaro government, which was forced to give up part of the execution of this budget.

The approved draft resolution establishes new transparency criteria for the resources from the approval of the text – that is, keeping those who benefited from the rapporteur’s amendments in 2020 and 2021 still hidden.

In addition to the government’s requests, the rapporteur received a request to accommodate a request from the MEC (Ministry of Education) to increase by approximately R$ 4.5 billion the resources destined for the area in the next year. The folder wants to avoid a reduction in the budget compared to 2019, the period before the pandemic.

The ministry asked for funds to guarantee the fulfillment of contracts already signed by universities and the payment of scholarships from Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), a body that has suffered a stampede of coordinators and consultants.

Last week, the CMO voted sectoral reports contemplating parliamentary amendments for different ministries. The largest resources were earmarked for health, with R$8.8 billion. The Ministry of Regional Development, of Rogério Marinho, received R$ 2.1 billion.