First modification:
On October 21, the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange closed with a drop of –2.75% due to doubts generated by the social program and that would force the Government to make fiscal policy more flexible for the year 2022, a period when the country will hold elections. presidential, legislative and regional.
The complaints and investigation for alleged crimes committed due to his mismanagement of the pandemic are not the only problem facing Jair Bolsonaro at the present time.
Bolsonaro, for several weeks, has been promoting the establishment of an improvement in the current Bolsa Familia social program to establish Auxilio Brasil, which aims not only to increase the number of beneficiaries but also the amount assigned by families.
According to the head of the Planalto Palace, the program aims to be raised to 400 reais, about $ 70, an amount that would lead to exceeding the spending ceiling established for the year. Additionally, it will expand the families benefited from 14.7 to 17 million.
“We have the responsibility that these resources come from the Union’s own budget. The ceiling will not be broken, nobody will do any tricks in the budget, but it would be extremely unfair to leave approximately 17 million people with so little value of Bolsa Família”, Bolsonaro said on October 20 at a public event in the town of Russas, in northeastern Brazil.
However, and according to media such as ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’, the Government would have carried out a fiscal maneuver that would avoid exceeding the debt ceiling and would give space to some 83,000 million reais (about 14,000 million dollars) in the budget to carry out the program in an election year.
The adjustment, which is being promoted by a special commission of the Chamber of Deputies, is based on a Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) that seeks, for each fiscal year, a limit on the payment of court orders or debts of the State recognized by the courts.
Decision causes departure of Ministry of Economy officials
In the midst of the turbulent day, where the price of the dollar reached a price of 5.66 reais per unit, two secretaries of the Brazilian Ministry of Economy resigned amid criticism of the measures that seek to make fiscal policy more flexible.
Bruno Funchal, special secretary of the Treasury and Budget, and Jéferson Bittencourt, secretary of the National Treasury, left their positions for personal reasons, according to a statement issued by the institution.
On the other hand, Paulo Guedes, Minister of Economy and with whom Bolsonaro had differences weeks ago for opposing the amount of Aid Brazil, will remain in his position. This was confirmed by Bolsonaro himself in an interview with ‘CNN Brasil’.
With EFE and Brazilian media
.