After releasing amendments, the federal government declares a block of R$ 2.63 billion in funds spending

Budget adjustment was made through the fourth quarter income and expense report. The government has not yet detailed which ministries will suffer the blockages.

The Ministry of Economy announced, on the eve of the elections, a spending block of R$ 2.63 billion in this year’s budget.

The blockade, carried out on “free” spending (which can be changed), takes place after the government has released R$ 5.6 billion in parliamentary amendments, most of which (R$ 3.5 billion) were the so-called rapporteur’s amendments (see below).

The contingency, released through the 2022 budget income and expense report, is intended to comply with the spending cap rule — whereby most expenses cannot rise above the previous year’s inflation.

The ministries that will suffer the cuts have not yet been disclosed. Details of the blockade should be included in a presidential decree, to be edited by the end of the month. It was also unclear whether the blockade will reverse the release of parliamentary amendments from recent weeks.

With the new block in this year’s budget, the total of contingency resources (considering the previous limitations) increased from R$ 7.9 billion to R$ 10.5 billion.

Reduction of the INSS queue raises expenses

According to the Special Secretary for the Treasury and Budget of the Ministry of Economy, Esteves Colnago, there was an increase in the forecast of spending on social security expenses, in recent months, of R$ 5.6 billion, which surprised the economic area.

At the same time, there was also a increase of R$ 1.85 billion in the expenditure projection for 2022, with the Continuing Payment Benefit (BPC).

“Surprisingly, there was a growth in mandatory expenses that I did not expect. On the other hand, there was a reduction in the queue [do Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social] that led to greater granting of benefits,” he declared.

parliamentary amendments

Questioned by journalists, Colnago said the release of amendments in recent weeks was not “hasty”, despite the new lockdown announced this week.

Known as a secret budget, the rapporteur’s amendments are resources that are not distributed equally among all parliamentarians — unlike other amendments (individual, bench or committee).

The transfers are, in practice, at the discretion of informal conversations and arrangements with the rapporteur, and generally favor parliamentarians from the government’s allied base. In possession of these resources, they can authorize works in their electoral strongholds.

This type of amendment was also known as a secret budget due to the difficulty in obtaining information about who indicated them and where the expenditures were made.

rule change

The release of the amendments was only possible because President Jair Bolsonaro edited, on August 6, a decree altering the budgetary and financial programming rules regarding the blocking, or unblocking, of resources. As a result, he was able to expedite the release of amendments before the elections.

With the new rule, it became easier to release amounts for spending. Until then, the government could only release, or block amounts, when there was the so-called “bimonthly” or “extemporaneous” calculation of all revenues and expenses – which happened only this Thursday (22), through the budget report. .

With the new format, it is enough for the government to have “specific legislation” that is published between the evaluation reports of primary revenues and expenditures. The “specific legislation” that made it possible for the government, given the new budget rules, to release resources are two provisional measures issued at the end of August.

The first postponed payments of benefits to the cultural sector (Paulo Gustavo and Aldir Blanc laws 2), and the second limited spending from the science and technology fund (National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development – ​​FNDCT).

Source: G1