PEC should remove unavoidable expenses from the ceiling, reinforces Senator Marcelo Castro

The transitional emergency Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) should remove unavoidable expenses from the ceiling, such as the increase in Auxílio Brasil (a substitute for Bolsa Família) to R$ 600, according to the general rapporteur for the 2023 Budget, Senator Marcelo Castro ( MDB-PI).

In conversation with journalists, after a press conference, he emphasized that the focus of this instrument will be on points considered essential. “We’ll see other things later,” he said.

One of the examples about which he was asked is the program Minha casa minha vida. “Everything can enter, but nothing has been defined,” he said, explaining that it is not yet certain whether the PEC procedure begins with the chamber or the senate.

“Members of the new government will bend over backwards to tell me exactly what they want and what that will entail. There are things that can go into others that cannot.”

The case of Bolsa Família, according to him, will certainly enter. “Who in their right mind will vote against the increase to R$ 600 in the crisis we are going through”, questioned the rapporteur.

Whoever does this, in Castro’s assessment, will be opposing Brazil and not the Lula government.

“All the rest, you have to define”, he said, commenting, for example, that the exemption from payment of IRPF is one of those complex points, despite being able to fit in the PEC. “On Tuesday (the 8th), we will meet to find out the value of the PEC. The one who makes the exception is Congress.”

Parliamentarians, according to the senator, have the spirit of collaboration. Another example is the increase in the minimum wage, which could be included in the proposal. The hammer, however, has not yet been struck.

PEC can be joined

The Minority Leader in the Senate, Jean Paul Prates (PT-RN), said this Thursday (3) that it is possible to take advantage of an existing Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) to speed up the processing of the transition PEC, negotiated by the President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) team to withdraw from the spending ceiling the maintenance of the R$ 600 value of Auxílio Brasil and other campaign promises.

If the transition PEC is attached to another proposal that is more advanced in Congress, it will be possible to skip some steps in the process.

Lula’s team is in a hurry to approve the text because the R$600 installment of the Aid is only valid until the end of this year. In the 2023 Budget, an average amount of R$ 405 is foreseen for beneficiaries of the social program.

According to Jean Paul, the transition PEC, which will be processed in parallel with the Budget, will have conditioned expenses, that is, the amounts will be directed to specific promises.

The senator gave the example of the PEC dos Precatórios, which postponed the payment of court sentences to open a space of more than R$100 billion in this year’s Budget to pay the Auxílio Brasil of R$400, among other expenses.

“In the form, the group is talking with the presidents of the Houses and with the president of the CMO, deputy Celso Sabino, in addition to the budget rapporteur, so that it is through a PEC of the transition with parallel processing and conditional expenditure forecast, as in the of the precatories, and give urgency to the processing, perhaps even taking advantage of the existing PEC, in parallel to the PLOA”, said Jean Paul Prates.