Ministry of Economy also extended the budget blockade to R$ 14 billion; cut affects education, health and defense
the president’s government Jair Bolsonaro (PL) established a cut of R$ 3.2 million in the 2022 budget of the MEC (Ministry of Education).
According to a statement obtained by the newspaper Folha de S. Paulothe cut aims to meet the spending ceiling, affecting all the ministry’s bodies, such as federal institutes and universities.
The amount corresponds to a 14.5% block on the discretionary budget —resources that each educational institution can define how to use— of each university, institute or entity linked to the MEC.
Discretionary resources encompass investments and expenses, such as the payment of scholarships and student aid, water and telephone bills, security and maintenance contracts.
Fixed expenses such as teachers’ salaries and pensions are excluded from the discretionary budget.
The cut will also impact the FNDE (National Education Development Fund), Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research), Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and Ebserh (Brazilian Hospital Services Company) .
The reduction in the MEC budget was based on the Primary Revenue and Expenditure Assessment Report for the 2nd quarter of 2022 and decided by the Budget Execution Board, which is responsible for conducting the federal government’s fiscal policy.
The government also increased the budget cut to R$ 14 billion to make room for the salary readjustment of civil servants and pay for the increase in mandatory expenses. The amount is higher than the BRL 8.2 billion blockade of the Budget — in addition to the BRL 1.7 billion already locked in the 1st two months — announced by the Ministry of Economy on May 20.
According to the newspaper The globe, the cut would be to accommodate mandatory expenses, such as the Safra Plan and payment of precatories. However, the government decided to expand the blockade to include a 5% readjustment for all employees, which is equivalent to approximately R$6.3 billion in the budget.
The scissors will have more impact on education, health and defense, according to technicians from the Ministry of Economy. Detailed information about the cut must be published in the DOU (Official Union Gazette).
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