PEC transition: Chamber threatens to obstruct Lula’s path to change fiscal anchor in 2023

The elected organizers of the government see the risk that the vote will remove a device from the PEC that allows the tax rule to be changed through a complementary law. Proposal to be discussed this Wednesday

BRASÍLIA – The House threatens to make it difficult for President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to create a new fiscal peg in 2023 to replace the spending cap – a rule that limits government spending growth to changes in inflation. The provision is under discussion in the Transitional Proposal to Amend the Constitution (PEC), on the agenda in the Chamber.

OR The basic text of the PEC was approved in the first round this Tuesday20, but the vote on a climax (request for modification of the text) that could change the content of the proposal has been postponed to the morning of this Wednesday 21. The climax, presented by the New Party and which the members of the Centrão threaten to support , removes from the PEC the device that allows Lula to present, by 31 August 2023, a proposal for a new fiscal anchorage to replace the spending ceiling with a complementary law, without the need for a new constitutional amendment.

The measure is defended by the elected government because it demands a lower political cost from Lula. A complementary bill depends on the affirmative vote of 257 deputies and 41 senators. As for a new PEC, the path is more difficult, given that it passes only with the vote of 308 deputies and 49 senators in two rounds of voting in the Chamber and in the Senate.

Faced with the risk that the amendment will be approved, Lula’s negotiators have asked the Speaker of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), to postpone the vote until Wednesday. The PT will insist on keeping the text, but the party’s MPs admit the risk that the Novo will be approved.

Lira’s allies say that the Speaker of the Chamber will undertake to maintain the Pec without further changes. Speaking to the interlocutors, the rapporteur of the proposal, the deputy Elmar Nascimento (União-BA), said that there is a risk that the culminating point will be approved, but that there will be time for a negotiation.

Message

Only one salient point was approved this Tuesday: that it removed the provision for Congress to respond to the transition team’s requests to define the destination of the new resources that will enter the 2023 Budget, with an increase in the spending ceiling of 145 billion R$ . In practice, the change sends a message to the president-elect to strengthen the power of parliamentarians to choose the destination and approve the budget piece.

The deputies say that the requests of the transition team, such as the increase of the Bolsa Família and the recomposition of the areas of health and education, are guaranteed, but the PEC does not stamp this use and there is a gap for other destinations. In any case, the proposal establishes that the new expenses will be under the control of government ministries when it comes to paying resources.

The Pec must be approved in the second round in the House and go through the Senate again, before the provision is issued. The Senate has convened the session for this Wednesday and will have to wait for the conclusion of the text in the Chamber to approve the measure. Until Thursday 23, the elected government wants to vote on the 2023 Budget and guarantee resources for Bolsa Família and other investments.

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Source: Terra

Camila

Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.