Lula’s showcase program was dehydrated to increase the value of parliamentary amendments
The National Congress approved this Friday 22nd, the last day of the legislative year, the 2024 Budget with a cut of approximately R$7 billion to the Growth Acceleration Program (CAP), the main showcase of the da Silva government of President Luiz Inácio Lula . This is the first Budget of Lula’s third term, as the 2023 Budget was prepared during the Bolsonaro administration.
In the first version of the Draft Annual Budget Law (PLOA), the rapporteur, deputy Luiz Carlos Motta (PL-SP), had reduced R$17 billion from the CAP, foreseeing R$44.3 billion for the program next year of R$, instead of the R$61.3 billion indicated by the Executive.
In the new text, the parliamentarian allocated approximately 54 billion reais to the program. The cut served to increase the value of the amendments to the commission, which went from R$ 11.3 billion – the minimum level established by the 2024 Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) – to R$ 16.6 billion next year. The text also provides for a record value for parliamentary amendments, equal to 53 billion reais.
According to the text, R$6.3 billion will be reallocated to the CAP from mandatory expenditure that has been scaled back, due to lower-than-expected inflation. Under the new scenario, the inflationary adjustment of the minimum wage will increase from 4.48% to 3.85%, reducing a number of federal expenditures, such as social security benefits, wage bonuses and unemployment insurance.
The minimum value in 2024, based on this new percentage, should be around R$1,415, instead of the R$1,421 initially expected. The rest of the CAP reset will come from changes to other budget items.
The speaker also limited the government’s power to change the allocation of CAP funds without needing the approval of representatives and senators. As demonstrated by Station/Broadcastthe official return of the program opened a dispute between the Executive Branch and Congress over the power to reallocate resources.
Motta also modified some sections included by the economic team in part of the discretionary expenditures (not mandatory, such as investments) that expanded the government’s freedom to open additional credits for some portfolios without intermediation with Congress.
Record amendments
The 2024 Budget will have a record volume of parliamentary amendments, worth approximately R$53 billion. In total, parliamentarians will be entitled to approximately R$16.6 billion for committee amendments, R$25 billion for mandatory individual amendments and R$11.3 billion for state constituency amendments.
Parliamentary amendments are resources from the federal government budget that can be allocated to the electoral strongholds of deputies and senators, for example, to carry out work and implement public policies.
This year, the 2024 Budget rapporteur, MP Luiz Carlos Motta (PL-SP), increased the resources allocated to the commission’s amendments. The Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) passed this year defined that the amount allocated for the commission amendments will be equivalent to “at least” 0.9% of the net current revenue (RCL) for the year 2022, which represents R$11.3 billion. The inclusion of the expression “at least” paved the way for parliamentarians to request a higher amount, which reached R$16.6 billion.
Although the government is not obliged to pay these sums, as in the case of individual and state amendments, which are mandatory, the legislative leadership has decided to invest in these funds as a way to compensate for the end of the secret budget declared unconstitutional by the Court Federal Supreme Court (STF). The movement is led by the presidents of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).
The idea is that the presidents of both houses can gain greater control over parliamentary resources, through amendments in committee, along the lines of the old secret budget. The scheme, revealed by Estadao and declared unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), consisted of the distribution of amendments without transparency by the leadership of the Congress.
In the commission’s amendments the author of the appeal is not a deputy or a senator, but the commission itself. As a rule, the choice of programs subject to modifications is, in fact, a collective decision.
“The commission’s amendment is balanced, not from a technical point of view, but from a political point of view,” said MP Adriana Ventura (Novo-SP) yesterday during the vote on the budget report at the Mixed Budget Committee (CMO) .
According to her, this type of amendment has become just a “disguise”. “It has become a business desk, we must be clear on this point. The speaker’s amendment (called Secret Budget, extinguished by the STF) has become a commission amendment. This is clear and clear, even the walls know it,” he stressed the parliamentarian.
Electoral fund
Another sign of Congress’s power was made explicit in the amount appropriated for the Fund electoral fund for the 2024 municipal elections: a figure of almost R$5 billion. The difference of R$4 billion between the amount originally proposed by the government (R$939.3 million) and the new amount (R$4.9 billion) will be removed by the changes made by the state benches.
In this way, the electoral fund for the campaign of mayors and councilors will be the same that financed the 2022 presidential elections, which represents more than double the last municipal elections, in 2020, of 2 billion reais.
The largest share of the fund in 2024 will be allocated to the PL, the former president’s party Jair Bolsonaro and the LOA rapporteur.
Source: Terra
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