Commission approves 2023 Budget with minimum wage of R$ 1,320

The Joint Budget Committee approved this Thursday (22) the basic text of the final report of the 2023 Budget with a minimum wage of R$ 1,320.

The value represents a real increase of 2.7% of the proposal made by the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government and will have an additional cost of R$ 6.8 billion for public coffers.

The readjustment of the minimum wage was anticipated by the Sheet in November.

The text approved by the CMO also guarantees the payment of BRL 600 from Bolsa Família in 2023, a campaign promise by the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), and an additional BRL 150 for families with children up to 6 years old. .

The final report of the 2023 Budget was made possible after the enactment of the Spending PEC, which raises the expenditure ceiling for next year by BRL 145 billion and allows for an investment of BRL 23 billion, outside the fiscal rule, when there is an excess of collection.

Because of the PEC, the rapporteur, senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), raised the primary result target for 2023 from a deficit of BRL 63.7 billion to BRL 231.5 billion.

According to Castro, the increase in the deficit does not mean a “non-compliance” with the 2023 Budget Guidelines Law.

“In fact, said constitutional amendment [que aumenta o teto de gastos] determines that, for purposes of verifying compliance with this target, the expenses accommodated by the increase in the spending ceiling by BRL 145 billion and by the additional fiscal space of BRL 23 billion generated by the exclusion of this cap on investment expenses will not be considered”, said.

With the open space in the spending ceiling, the rapporteur recomposed the budget of several ministries to maintain the functioning of public policies, such as Farmácia Popular and Minha Casa, Minha Vida.
Castro defined, for example, the recomposition of the Ministry of Health (R$ 22.7 billion), Regional Development (R$ 18.8 billion), Infrastructure (R$ 12.2 billion) and Education (R$ 10.8 billion ).

During a session of the Joint Budget Commission, Castro stated that the 2023 Budget proposal sent by the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government was unfeasible.

“There is a whole context to justify the need to change the Union’s spending ceiling, with a view to allowing an additional contribution of R$ 70 billion to meet the Bolsa Família program, as well as correcting several distortions that the budget proposal presents”, completed.

The Budget report still needs to be approved by the plenary of the House and Senate, in a joint session of the National Congress. The vote is expected to take place this Thursday.

The top of Congress also took advantage of a loophole to maintain in the 2023 Budget the power to appoint parliamentarians over part of the resources that would have to be amended by the rapporteur.

In addition to the vote presented this Thursday (22), Senator Marcelo Castro distributed the R$ 19.4 billion in rapporteur amendments planned for next year in individual amendments (R$ 9.6 billion) and budget for the execution of the ministries (R$ 9.8 billion).

The resources that were sent to the ministries, however, follow the same criteria established by the parliamentarians themselves when the rapporteur’s amendments still existed.

In practice, despite the decision of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) that buried the rapporteur’s amendments, the 2023 Budget maintains resources in the same actions and projects that were already foreseen in a political agreement. The difference is the code, which leaves RP9 (rapporteur amendments) and enters RP2 (ministries resource).

Such as Sheet showed, centrão leaders have stated that although they have lost the power to execute the rapporteur’s amendments, they want the R$ 9.8 billion transferred to the ministries to be released following indications by parliamentarians.

For this, deputies and senators will have to negotiate the transfer of resources with the ministries —which reduces the power of the top of Congress, but does not isolate it in the distribution of funds.

Last week, Congress had already made a division of the amendments, before the decision of the STF.
The framework provided for resources for some actions, such as promotion of the agricultural sector (Ministry of Agriculture), road qualification (area of ​​works on highways of the Ministry of Regional Development), water supply from the Alagoas hinterland channel, among others.

In this Thursday’s report, Castro maintained the same headings. Therefore, the appropriation of the apportionment of the rapporteur’s amendments will continue to finance areas that Congress was already interested in – even before the judgment in the STF.

Last week’s table provided for R$ 40 million in amendments by the rapporteur for the implementation of water supply systems in the Alagoas hinterland channel, via Codevasf (Development Company of the São Francisco and Paranaíba Valleys).

Now, even with the end of the amendments, the rapporteur even increased to R$ 50 million the value for the action in the hinterland of Alagoas.