In a new nod to truck drivers, the government creates another line of credit for the category

The government launched this Thursday (7th) a BB (Banco do Brasil) credit program for truck drivers, about two months after a similar announcement aimed at the category.

The programs are announced on the eve of the electoral calendar, in the year in which President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) will run again for the Palácio do Planalto, and serve professionals who frequently exert pressure on the government.

On February 4, Caixa had already announced a program that anticipated the payment of freight to truck drivers, with interest rates starting at 1.99% per month.

Now, BB will also offer advance payments scheduled for the following 120 days, with an interest rate starting at 1.79% per month.

Bolsonaro said that the release of credit frees truck drivers from seeking resources with the so-called “freight letter”. “At any post you pay 10% today to anticipate shipping. It is a modern loan shark that will cease to exist from now on,” said the president.

According to the bank, the measure can be contracted by autonomous transporters in a digital way, through a mobile application.

In addition to being seen by the government as an important support group for Bolsonaro’s reelection, self-employed truck drivers make up part of the category that stopped the country in 2018 to demand precisely the readjustment of the freight table and the containment of increases in the price of diesel.

The president made several nods and promises to this base during his term, some unfulfilled. Truck drivers have complained about some of the proposals and have even rehearsed stoppages.

The rise in fuel prices is a cause for concern in an election year. Bolsonaro again blamed governors this Thursday (7th) for these values.

In October of the same year, the president promised a benefit of R$ 400 to about 750 thousand autonomous cargo carriers, which did not get off the ground after leaders in the category complained about the value.

In the coup-based acts promoted by the president on the holiday of September 7, 2021, groups of truck drivers were in Brasília and continued in pro-government protests in the following days.

Not only truck drivers have received the president’s attention in the year in which he will run for reelection. Bolsonaro has insisted on granting salary readjustments to police officers and has also created a subsidized real estate credit program for the category.

The president said this Thursday that he asked Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) to study the exemption from IPI for motorcycle taxi vehicles. The IPI has already been cut linearly by the government by 25% this year and Guedes himself later said that the percentage could rise to 33%, but the measure did not go ahead because of the resistance of the Amazonas bench (which states that the Manaus Free Trade Zone may lose competitiveness).

The president reiterated this Thursday (7) that there is no corruption in his government, on the day that mayors from different regions of the country confirmed signs of influence peddling in the distribution of funds from the Ministry of Education.

Bolsonaro played down the different suspicions. “There have been seven cases of corruption publicized. Wow, they have reached this point, seven. We seek to do the right thing and invest heavily in prevention”, he declared.

The president also praised the House’s rejection of the fake news project. “Whoever gives up a little freedom to have security ends up having neither freedom nor security,” he said.