According to the Secretary of Finance and Budget, Esteves Colnago, from the Ministry of Economy, the government should set the value of the Brazil Aid in R$ 400 in next year's budget (2023). The amount of benefits paid to low-income families will increase from R$400 to R$600 starting this month due to the approval of the constitutional amendment dubbed “PEC Kamikaze” by Congress, because of the risk of the bills public.
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The amendment created and extended the benefits to three months before the election, which the opposition saw as an electoral strategy. However, the Electoral Law prohibits the creation of social benefits in election years, with some exceptions.
One of them is if the country is in a state of emergency. Therefore, the justification for its use was the increase in fuel prices, which is why the PEC established a state of emergency.
The two best positioned candidates in the polls, President Jair Bolsonaro and the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have commented on maintaining the aid amount of R$ 600 also in the next year.
According to the secretary, the understanding of the economic team is that the legislation does not require the payment of the additional 200 reais. However, the added value is defined in the proposed amendment to the Social Security Constitution (PEC) and will be paid by December of this year.
However, if the political decision is to maintain the 600 reais of Brazilian aid next year, the cost additional to public coffers will go from 50 billion reais to 60 billion reais, according to the secretary.
Thus, the secretary added that the government needs to work to align this amount with the spending ceiling. For, in addition, the rule prevents the government from spending more in a year than the inflation of the previous year. Therefore, increasing Auxílio Brasil will require cuts in non-mandatory expenditures, namely public sector investment and financing.