Increase for servers will take resources from other areas, says secretary de Guedes

The secretary of Economic Policy, Adolfo Sachsida, said this Wednesday (17) that using the budget space to be generated in 2022 by the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatório to raise civil servants’ salaries will take resources from other public policies .

“If there is a democratic and legitimate demand from society to give raises to servers, what will we do? We have to show that spending will be reduced. The beauty of the spending ceiling is this,” he said when asked in an interview about the new projections for the GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

He stated that the government can use the available space if the text is approved for different policies, but stressed that this will be a choice of which measures will be met. He recalled the social demands of the pandemic and that public servants had no job loss or wage cuts as observed in the private sector.

“I’m going to have a fiscal space. Where am I going to use it? Relieving the payroll? Or improving social spending at this delicate time the world is experiencing because of the pandemic? Or use it to adjust for a category that has not lost jobs or income in the pandemic?” he asked.

“These are legitimate choices for a democracy. Now, to give raises to servers, I’m going to stop using them for something else. It’s a choice to be made,” he said.

The PEC dos Precatórios (debts to be paid by the State as a result of court rulings) circumvents the constitutional rule on spending ceilings by releasing R$ 91.6 billion in 2022 without the need to cut other costs.

The text makes two main moves: it creates an annual limit for payment of court judgments (throwing the excess over to subsequent years) and changes the calculation of the annual federal spending limit (expanding it).

The government has been saying that this operation is necessary to provide a solution for the high volume of court orders to be paid next year (R$ 89 billion) and to accommodate Brazil Aid within the spending ceiling. But the strategy goes beyond that and also makes room for other measures that boost the government’s popularity on the eve of the electoral calendar – President Jair Bolsonaro has already mentioned initiatives such as a gas voucher, aid for truck drivers and the adjustment itself for civil servants.

The dribble in the spending ceiling stimulates the deficit in public accounts and the country’s indebtedness. Brazil has been in the red since 2014, its debt reached record levels after the pandemic (currently exceeding R$5.4 trillion) and interest costs are paid by society as a whole.

This Tuesday (16), Bolsonaro confirmed that he intends to use part of the fiscal slack generated by the possible approval of the PEC dos Precatórios in the granting of salary increases for federal employees.

He made the statements after participating in a business event in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, where he arrived after a three-day visit to Dubai.

“Inflation reached double digits. [ministro da Economia] Paulo Guedes, and in passing the PEC dos Precatórios, there has to be a little space to make some adjustments. not what they [servidores] they deserve it, but it’s what we can give,” he said.

The Ministry of Economy has been studying for at least three months the possibility of an increase for civil servants, whose salaries are frozen.

The fiscal impact resulting from such a measure was estimated between R$ 5 billion and R$ 15 billion at the beginning of the discussions, according to interlocutors of the economic team heard by the sheet. The economic team expressed difficulties and signaled that the amounts for the increase could be below R$ 5 billion.

According to reports, it was found that there would be no room for very high values. Calculations show that a low adjustment, of around 1%, for all civil service careers, would cost around R$ 3 billion.

In the understanding of government officials, granting a readjustment far below inflation would have a more negative than positive political impact. Thus, it began to be studied serving only a few careers — such as police officers, part of Bolsonaro’s electorate. But, when asked about the topic, the president said that the idea is to grant an adjustment to all servers.