2024-01-02 23:46:15
In the order, the government argued that the calendar “would go once morest the principle that the federal Executive Branch establishes the financial reimbursement schedule”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returns today to the Palácio do Planalto, following an eight-day recess on the private beach of Restinga de Marambaia, in Rio. On his return to the federal capital, Lula will have to negotiate tough negotiations with Congress and resume dialogues regarding changes to be made at the top level of government.
Yesterday, the president sanctioned, with vetoes, the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) of 2024. One of the vetoed sections of the measure published in the Official Gazette of the Union made it mandatory to commit resources to pay for tax amendments within 30 days following the publicizing the proposal. This item was harshly contested by the government while the LDO was being processed in Congress, as it took away from the president the power to define the flow of amendment releases.
In the order, the government argued that the calendar “would go once morest the principle that the federal Executive Branch establishes the financial reimbursement schedule”. During Lula’s first year in office, it became customary to release binding amendments on the eve of important votes for the government. The 2024 Budget will have a record volume of amendments, worth R$53 billion.
Congress, however, should not back down from the increased power gained over the amendments, both in the amount allocated to each parliamentarian and in defining when these amounts must be paid. Therefore, Lula will need to get involved in articulations to prevent the overturn of yet another presidential veto in the Legislature.
In mid-December, Congress overturned the PT member’s vetoes on the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands and on the project that extends the payroll tax exemption for 17 sectors until 2027 and reduces the social security contribution rate for small municipalities. The issue of tax relief is yet another point of stress between the Executive and Parliament at the beginning of 2024.
MP
The provisional measure designed by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad’s team to resume the gradual taxation of companies’ payroll was poorly received by Congress. Senators promised to resist the changes made by the government’s economic team and guaranteed that the Planalto will be resisted from the start.
In addition to the overturning of Lula’s veto on the measure, the negative reaction is due to the fact that parliamentarians have published a bill that maintained the benefit for the sectors that employ the most until 2027. With this climate of tension installed, the president must join to Haddad in attempts to negotiate with Congress.
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The re-encumbrance of the payroll is another of the measures formulated by the Finance Minister’s team to increase revenue in search of zero deficit this year. The target for the primary result of public accounts – that is, federal spending cannot exceed the sum of revenue from taxes and other sources – was maintained in this year’s LDO.
‘PRESIDENTIALIST’
The government’s resistance to parliamentarians’ progress on the execution of the federal Budget in the election year has the potential to make Planalto’s political articulation in the Legislature even more difficult. As Coluna do Estadão showed, the veto on the transfer calendar in the Budget Guidelines Law was expected, but it reinforces the collision course between the Powers. A Column, the government leader in Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues (AP), classified as “improper” the parliamentarians’ desire to “determine when resources should be paid” and highlighted that the government system is “presidential”. The LDO also foresees a ceiling of R$4.9 billion for the electoral fund, which can be used by political parties to spend on the 2024 municipal elections.
The text, approved by Congress on December 19, provides guidelines for the preparation of the 2024 Budget and sets parameters for the allocation of resources to guarantee the achievement of the goals and objectives contemplated in the Multi-Year Plan (PPA).
‘JABUTIS’
Another veto by Lula was the amendment presented by deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) and approved by parliamentarians in the final vote of the LDO that prohibits possible expenses with the invasion or occupation of private rural properties; carrying out abortions not permitted by law; surgeries to change the sex of children and adolescents; actions that may influence “children and adolescents, from daycare to high school, to have sexual options different from their biological sex”; and actions aimed at deconstructing, diminishing or extinguishing the concept of traditional family, formed by father, mother and children.
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None of these topics were foreseen in the LDO project and had been rejected by the Mixed Budget Committee (CMO). The text’s rapporteur himself, deputy Danilo Forte (União-CE), considered the prominent amendment a “jabuti”, foreign to the text.
“The text of the amendment also generates strong legal uncertainty, compared to the proposal that vaguely prohibited expenses that ‘directly or indirectly, promote, encourage or finance’ various conducts”, explained the government, in a statement
FUNDEB
The president vetoed the use of Union resources allocated to the Fund for Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and Valorization of Education Professionals (Fundeb) to pay for transportation, food and provision of school uniforms and kits. The possibility of allocating Union resources for the construction and maintenance of state and municipal roads that are not within its sphere of competence was also vetoed.
Lula also vetoed the possibility of allocating resources for construction, expansion or completion of works to private non-profit entities and the reservation of at least 30% of resources for housing programs, such as Minha Casa, Minha Vida, for cities with up to 50 thousand inhabitants.
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The text of the LDO approved by Congress also provided that the Environment should carry out actions aimed at animal welfare, veterinary care and ethical population control, including castration. The section was vetoed, as it was foreign to the objective of the LDO.
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