The government will regulate the Paulo Gustavo Law next Thursday.

 Brazil Agency - The federal government will formalize the regulation of the so-called Paulo Gustavo Law (Complementary Law No. 195, of 2022) this Thursday (11). The President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will take advantage of his trip to Bahia to, together with the Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes, sign the decree that regulates the law.

 Approved by the National Congress during the first half of last year to support and assist cultural workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Paulo Gustavo Law provides, among other things, for the federal transfer of R$ 3,862 billion from the National Culture Fund (FNC) to municipalities, states, and the Federal District to invest in the production of cultural events. The law was named in honor of the actor Paulo Gustavo, who died at the age of 42 due to complications from Covid-19 in May 2021.

 During his administration, in April 2022, then-President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed the supplementary law. Among the arguments used to justify the veto of the transfer of funds was that the measure violated the Fiscal Responsibility Law by creating an expense foreseen in the spending cap, but without the necessary compensation, in the form of spending reductions, to guarantee compliance with this limit. In July of that year, the National Congress overturned the veto of the law.

 Upon assuming control of the federal Executive Branch, the current government team recreated the Ministry of Culture, which had been abolished at the beginning of the previous administration. The ministry, in turn, listed the regulation of the Paulo Gustavo Law as one of its priorities. To this end, in February of this year, it created a working group composed of representatives from the secretariats and entities linked to the ministry, which held more than 90 meetings to hear from representatives of civil society and state and municipal secretaries of Culture.

 With the regulation of the law, all municipalities, states, and the Federal District that need financial support for cultural projects will soon be able to request a portion of the resources, which will be distributed as follows: R$ 2 billion for states and R$ 1,8 billion for municipalities.

 "All cities will have access to receive this [financial] contribution," Minister Margareth Menezes stated during a morning public hearing held by the Senate's Education, Culture and Sports Committee.

 During the public hearing, Margareth criticized the previous administration's veto of the law. "The Paulo Gustavo Law is being implemented now because its implementation was blocked twice during the pandemic, when we suffered the most, when we lost the most people and jobs." 

 The minister also assured that the implementation of the law will enable the ministry to begin implementing the project of decentralizing public investments in culture.

 “We are complying with the call for the decentralization of the [application of] incentive laws. Giving autonomy to mayors and municipal secretaries,” added the minister, revealing that representatives of the ministry have already been discussing the matter with state secretaries of Culture and also with representatives of companies that sponsor events and shows by obtaining tax benefits.

 “We also need to raise awareness among the companies we want to bring into this partnership, in this action of decentralizing – [the subject of] significant criticism from society regarding laws promoting culture,” commented Margareth, defending the importance of public policies to stimulate the creative sector.

 “We are talking about a contingent of 7,5 million workers […] in a sector that moves around R$ 232 billion a year, which corresponds to 3,11% of the national GDP [Gross Domestic Product] […] We need public policies to structure and make the sector a tool for economic transformation,” added Margareth, citing, for comparison, that according to recent data, the transport and construction sectors account for around 3,6% of the GDP.

 Areas covered

 In a statement, the Ministry of Culture affirmed that approximately R$ 2,7 billion will go to the audiovisual sector. The remaining amount – R$ 1,065 billion – will be allocated to other cultural and artistic sectors and areas, such as the development of creative economy and solidarity economy activities; financing of cultural agents, initiatives, courses, productions or cultural events; development of artistic and cultural spaces, individual micro-entrepreneurs, micro and small cultural businesses, cooperatives, institutions and community cultural organizations whose activities were interrupted due to social isolation measures implemented to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

 In order to achieve goals such as inclusion and democratization of access to projects funded with public resources, the projects must offer accessibility conditions for people with disabilities, measures for democratization, deconcentration, decentralization and regionalization of cultural investment, and the implementation of affirmative action, with mechanisms that encourage the participation of women, Black and Indigenous people, traditional communities, Afro-Brazilian religious and quilombola communities, nomadic populations and Roma people, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities and other minority groups.