The Minister of Planning, Simone Tebet, stated, this Monday (25), that the occurrence of new contingencies in the General Union Budget in 2023 will depend on the behavior of government revenues. According to the minister, if revenues are not “frustrated” in the next four months, blockages should not occur.
“We will see how revenue will react in the next four months. Without this, it is not possible to make an assessment. Let’s remember that the blockade was not significant in this fourth bimonthly report, but it happened precisely because of revenue frustration. If revenues don’t frustrate us in the next two months, we could be talking about no lockdown”, said Simone Tebet, in an interview in the capital of São Paulo.
On Friday (22), the government announced that it had made a contingency (temporary block) of over R$600 million from the 2023 General Union Budget. As a result, the total blocked this year rose from R$3.2 billion to R$3.8 billion, an amount considered low compared to total primary expenses, estimated at R$2.056 trillion for 2023.
The minister highlighted that, if revenues are not as expected, and the government still has to comply with the constitutional minimum for health and education, there will be an impact on important social programs.
“If it (revenue) is frustrated, combined with an interpretation of the application of the constitutional minimum for health, then we could be talking about a significant blockage. I repeat, it will negatively impact public policies considered essential for Brazil”, he said in the interview, before giving a talk at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), in the Avenida Paulista region, in São Paulo.
The new fiscal framework, in force since August 31, reestablished the previous rule, which obliged the government to apply 15% of net current revenue (RCL) to health and education, as determined by the Federal Constitution.
The 2023 budget, prepared before the framework was approved, set aside R$168 billion for health. However, the Bimonthly Income and Expense Assessment Report, released on Friday, updated RCL’s estimates to around R$1.26 trillion, raising the minimum health threshold to R$189 billion, R$21 billion above forecast.
“Any scenario that imposes the Constitution’s minimum percentages on us, especially in the area of health, where there is a greater margin for releasing resources, will, indeed, have a decisive impact on essential public policies in Brazil,” said Tebet.
According to the minister, the government has not yet decided how to address the issue. “We have not yet sat down to evaluate whether we are going to carry out the consultation via the Federal Court of Auditors, or whether we are going to wait, first, for the vote on a project that is being presented in the National Congress.” The information is from Agência Brasil.
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