President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) sanctioned the 2022 Budget, but the statement released this Sunday (23) by the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic does not detail the amount of the expenses that were vetoed.
“It was necessary to veto budgetary programs in order to adjust mandatory expenses related to personnel expenses and social charges”, the ministry limited itself to saying.
On Saturday (22), Bolsonaro had announced the need to cut R$ 2.8 billion in the Budget, in a conversation with journalists in Eldorado (SP), where the day before he attended the wake of his mother, Olinda, 94.
If confirmed, the amount is lower than that announced on Friday (21) by the number two of the Civil House, the executive secretary Jônathas Castro. According to him, the indication was for a cut of R$ 3.1 billion – the same amount signaled by technicians in the economic area.
The veto is a condition to allow the recomposition of personnel expenses that were underestimated by the National Congress.
“In this case, it will be necessary, later, to forward a bill of additional credit with the use of the fiscal space resulting from the vetoes of the schedules”, said the General Secretariat.
The six-paragraph statement cites amounts earmarked for health actions (R$139.9 billion), education (R$62.8 billion) and the AuxÃlio Brasil social program (R$89.1 billion), but does not state how much of the expenses had to be cancelled.
The text also makes no explicit mention of these items, but the forecast of government technicians was to ensure resources for the electoral fund, for the granting of readjustments to servers and R$ 16.5 billion for the rapporteur’s amendments, directed by the National Congress .
Congress approved R$4.9 billion for the electoral fund, which will finance campaigns this year.
BRL 1.7 billion was also earmarked for the granting of readjustments to civil servants in 2022. Bolsonaro’s intention is to contemplate police corporations, but other categories are pressing to also be awarded.
The sanctioned text of the Budget will be published in the edition of Monday (24) of the Official Gazette of the Union.
In addition to not detailing the value of the veto, the General Secretariat’s communiqué also does not say which ministries lost resources.
as showed the leaf, the technicians’ indication was to veto resources from discretionary expenses (which include funding for ministries and investments) and commission amendments, an instrument created by Congress to direct resources according to the preference of parliamentarians.
Among technicians, the suggestion was to focus the scissoring on folders that had budget allocations increased during the vote, such as Citizenship, Social Security and Work, Infrastructure and Science and Technology. The final decision, however, would rest with the Civil House.
Bolsonaro had to veto some budget expenses because, during the vote on the bill in Congress, parliamentarians cut part of the mandatory personnel expenses.
The economic team requested the recomposition, to avoid lack of money to pay salaries and pensions of the federal civil service. There is an understanding among technicians that the Legislature could not have reduced the amount in relation to what was requested by the government, hence the need to ensure the greater amount.
The total need for resources pointed out by the Ministry of Economy was even greater. as showed the leaf, technicians in the economic area see a hole of almost R$ 9 billion, considering mandatory and discretionary expenses.
In addition to the R$3.1 billion initially considered necessary for personnel expenses, Minister Paulo Guedes’ team pointed out the need to redirect another R$777.9 million to the electoral fund.
A provision included in this year’s LDO (Lei de Diretrizes Orçamentárias) provides that the amount for the electoral fund will be equivalent to 25% of the Electoral Justice budget in 2021 and 2022, plus the amount informed by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).
The sum totals R$5.7 billion, the highest level since the fund was established in 2017. The passage had been vetoed by the president, and Congress approved the Budget with a reserve of R$4.9 billion for the fund.
At the end of 2021, however, congressmen overrode the veto, reinstating the rule that brings the sum to R$ 5.7 billion. With this, the understanding of palace assistants and technicians in the economic area is that there is an obligation to restore the value
However, the government has now given up on making the necessary cut to rebuild the electoral fund to avoid tightening the other portfolios and also to keep Bolsonaro’s fingerprint away from increasing resources for campaigns – something criticized for its more ideological base.
The Economy had also pointed out the need to recompose R$ 5 billion in the Budget for maintenance and operating expenses of Guedes’s own portfolio.
In a move seen as retaliation by Congress to the Minister of Economy, the ministry suffered a 50% cut in its allocations and may stop in the first half of the year.
The government’s political decision, however, was to avoid a more significant cut now, restoring only the amount that would actually be mandatory, as is the case with personnel expenses.
In addition, the orientation of the political wing of the government was to shield the rapporteur’s amendments, an instrument through which parliamentarians allied to the government irrigate their electoral strongholds with resources from the federal government, from any court.
The economic team will have the bimonthly budget evaluation reports to analyze whether surplus resources will appear over the next few months, to request the reallocations that have not yet been carried out.
These opinions are regularly released in March, May, July, September and November. An extemporaneous edition, however, can be published at any time, when the government deems it necessary.
The decision on the sanction of the 2022 Budget was closely monitored by the Civil House, headed by Ciro Nogueira (PP), one of the main exponents of the center.
In addition to being part of the JEO (Junta de Execution Budget), a forum for government definitions of the Budget, the Civil House will also now have the power of the pen over any changes in the execution of expenditures. A decree by Bolsonaro stipulated that the movements made by the Economy must have prior approval from Nogueira’s portfolio, as revealed by the Ministry of Health. leaf.
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