The Senate approved, this Wednesday (9), a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that obliges the federal government to invest in the transport sector at least 70% of the resources with onerous grants of works and services in the sector.
The proposal was approved in the first round by 65 votes in favor and five against – 49 were needed, as it was an amendment to the Constitution. In the second round, there were 60 votes in favor and four against.
The proposal now goes to the Chamber of Deputies.
The text, authored by Senator Wellington Fagundes (PL-MT), establishes a maximum period of three years for the resources to be reinvested.
The federal government must then invest only 70% of all funds collected in the transport sector with counterparts for concessions, permits or onerous authorizations arising from transport infrastructures of the Union.
Currently, these resources enter directly into the Union’s single cash flow. There are initiatives by the Ministry of Infrastructure so that resources resulting from concessions are reinvested in the respective sectors and many concession contracts provide for these reinvestments. However, there is no specific legislation that determines the practice.
The author of the PEC estimated that the new legislation should result in at least R$ 7 billion per year that will be invested in the transport sector.
“This amount is slightly less than the R$ 8 billion that the federal government invested in transport infrastructure in 2021, a volume that, it is worth noting, is very low and insufficient for the country’s needs”, says the text of the rapporteur Jayme Campos (União Brazil-MT).
The model of reinvesting resources with onerous grants of works and services in the sector is already adopted in some Brazilian states, such as São Paulo.
The rapporteur also pointed out that the approval of the PEC will have practically zero impact on the budget. He also added that there is no incompatibility between the proposal and the LDO (Budget Guidelines Law) and the LRF (Fiscal Responsibility Law).
Jayme Campos also stated that the PEC will not necessarily guarantee an increase in investment in the transport sector and defended that the proposal is an “insurance” to guarantee a minimum for investments.
“The PEC will not necessarily imply an increase in spending on transport infrastructure. However, even if the future constitutional amendment does not impact the budget in the coming years, this does not imply that it is harmless. pensions, due to the aging of the population, it is to be expected that discretionary expenses will be compressed over time”, said the senator.
“Thus, one cannot rule out the possibility of not even having the R$7 billion projected by the PEC for investment in infrastructure. The PEC would thus be a kind of insurance to guarantee a floor for such investments, even if the amount guaranteed can be considered negligible in view of the needs of our sector”, he added.
The Union budget for 2022 allocated one of the lowest amounts in recent years to the investment area. BRL 42.3 billion were authorized for this year. Such as leaf showed, the Ministry of Defense is the main beneficiary, corresponding to 20.7% of this total.
The proposal garnered support from government leaders, despite opposition from the economic team.
“Government was initially against it, since it plasters resources that could be used in other states”, said the deputy leader of the government Carlos Viana (MDB-MG).
However, the parliamentarian then released the government bench to vote according to the will of each parliamentarian. Viana himself declared that he would vote in favor of the PEC.
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