05/11/2024 – 7:04
The Minister of Planning and Budget, Simone Tebet, told the Estadão that its role is to leave a broad spending cut package ready to give the government options. This range of measures, according to her, “goes from A to Z” and is much broader than just the debate about a possible decoupling of social security benefits from the minimum wage adjustment. Whether or not the arsenal will be used, the decision “will be political”, says the former senator.
“By the end of the year, my team, together with Ipea (Institute for Applied Economic Research), will study, put on paper and carry out an official survey of the impact of linking the minimum wage to other benefits above inflation; the floor (constitutional of Health and Education); and other programs. And then, we’ll get the package ready”, says Tebet. “Will it be used? It’s a political decision. Will it not be used? It is also a political decision.”
Tebet’s statement comes after a speech by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, against the proposal to unlink the adjustment of pensions in relation to the correction of the minimum. To the Estadão/BroadcastHaddad said he did not see “much room” for discussion in the government.
According to him, the issue was overcome when the department proposed, unsuccessfully, that the increase in the national minimum wage be defined by the increase in GDP per capita. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government, however, opted for a formula with greater readjustment.
FRAMEWORK
As shown by the Estadão At the end of April, the spending projection made by the economic team for the coming years shows that the increase in mandatory expenses, including social security benefits and the constitutional minimums for Health and Education, will put increasing pressure on the fiscal framework – approved last year.
According to economists, the government will have to choose between the framework and maintaining minimum spending on both areas – which have rules that make them grow at a faster pace than the limit of the framework itself.
Asked about the viability of the floors, Haddad was in the same line as Tebet and said that it was a “political decision”. According to him, the government will have more clarity about how much these expenses are compressing others when the next budget piece is finalized.
Another item on Tebet’s list is the Basic Education Fund (Fundeb), since, according to her, transfers to municipalities are “increasing too much”, without there being a plan to improve public policy.
The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
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