Decoupling the minimum wage from pensions would put the elderly in an inhumane situation, says Rui Costa.
"The minimum wage in Brazil is at the very limit of what is needed for basic human survival," said the Minister of the Civil House.
Reuters - The Chief of Staff, Rui Costa, said on Tuesday that decoupling pensions from the minimum wage would put millions of elderly people in an inhumane situation, since the minimum wage serves to guarantee basic survival needs.
In an interview with GloboNews, Costa also defended the need to review benefits given to various sectors that, in his assessment, pay less in social security contributions than they should.
"The decoupling means that retirees would no longer receive the minimum wage paid in the labor market. The minimum wage in Brazil is at the limit of the bare minimum for human survival. It is unreasonable to imagine that a person who has worked their entire life, who has contributed, reaches a stage of 60, 70, 80, 90 years of age and does not have the minimum to buy their food and medicine," he said.
"Revising this would mean putting thousands of elderly people in inhumane conditions, without even the bare minimum to eat."
Critics of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's fiscal policy point out that Finance Minister Fernando Haddad's economic team has focused its efforts on balancing public accounts by increasing revenue and demanding what they consider structural measures to cut spending.
Among these measures, there have been proposals to decouple the minimum wage from pensions, as well as to eliminate the constitutional minimum spending requirements for health and education, two proposals frequently rejected by Lula and his aides.
In the interview, Costa also assessed that public finances have shown a "significant improvement" and said he expects the Central Bank to soon begin a downward trajectory in the basic interest rate to help alleviate the financial burden, particularly the amount spent on debt servicing.
The minister also rejected the possibility of revising the government's current fiscal target, which foresees a zero primary deficit this year and a primary surplus of 0,25% of Gross Domestic Product next year, with a tolerance margin of 0,25 percentage points above or below.
"The target is guaranteed, there is a fiscal commitment from the President of the Republic," he assured. "The trajectory of the deficit is decreasing."
