Government agrees to include Pé-de-Meia and Vale Gás in the budget.

Lucas Pordeus León - Reporter for Agência Brasil

The federal government has reached an agreement with the budget rapporteur in the National Congress to include the Pé-de-Meia and Vale Gás programs in the 2025 Budget Bill (PLOA).

The solution found includes a reduction of R$ 7,6 billion in the expenses planned for Bolsa Família this year. With the agreement, the rapporteur of the PLOA, Senator Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA), assessed that it will be possible to vote on the budget next Wednesday (19).

The government leader in the National Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), explained that the reduction in Bolsa Família benefits is the result of a thorough review of benefits for families who, for some reason, receive or received the benefit without meeting the requirements to access the program.

“Based on the thorough review [done last year], there was this cut of R$ 7,6 billion. These are people who were not entitled to it. In other words, no family entitled to Bolsa Família will be left without the benefit. There is no cut to the program. There is an adjustment to what had already been announced, which was this thorough review process,” the leader emphasized.

Rapporteur Ângelo Coronel had urged the Executive branch to present reductions of R$ 15 billion in other expenses to finance the Pé-de-Meia and Vale Gás programs, which reportedly lacked budgetary provision for this year. 

The government then sent an official letter to the Joint Budget Committee (CMO) to make adjustments to the project. According to Randolfe, a list of programs that may suffer reductions in the 2025 budget forecast was also presented.

This list includes R$ 4,8 billion earmarked for the Basic Education Financing Fund (Fundeb), related to funding for full-time schools, and another R$ 600 million for the Aldir Blanc Law, which finances the country's cultural sector. "The R$ 3 billion from Vale Gás comes from all of these other things that have been done," said Randolfe.

In addition to funding for the Vale Gás program, which finances gas cylinders for low-income families, the rapporteur demanded a solution for the R$ 12 billion that was allegedly missing from the Pé-de-Meia program, a federal program that pays R$ 2 to low-income high school students to prevent them from dropping out of school.

Savings

The government leader explained that R$ 1 billion is allocated for the Ministry of Education's (MEC) program in the budget. Randolfe added that, if the planned reallocation of expenses does not cover the total amount of the "Pé-de-Meia" program, the missing amounts will be detailed through the submission of a bill to the National Congress (PLN).

"The Federal Court of Accounts [TCU] gave the government 120 days to incorporate the entire 'Pe-de-Meia' [shortcut] into the budget. The government is halfway through that period; we still have another 60 days to do so. The government will subsequently submit a draft budget law with the remaining funds," added Senator Randolfe Rodrigues.

The "Pé-de-Meia" program had been funded by resources outside the National Treasury, as stipulated in the legislation that created the program. However, the Minister of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), Augusto Nardes, assessed that this mechanism could constitute a circumvention of the spending cap and demanded adjustments to the way the benefit is financed, giving the government a deadline to include these expenses in the 2025 budget.

Budget vote

After meeting with the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and the Minister of Institutional Relations, Gleisi Hoffmann, the rapporteur for the budget, Angelo Coronel, stated that the agreement reached should allow for the voting on the PLOA (Annual Budget Law Proposal) next week.

“The economic team sent suggestions for cuts in some budget items; we will now analyze them and will probably follow these guidelines from the Executive Branch. Any cuts will be made in agreement with the government so that there is no problem of discontinuity in any budget item. But I don't foresee any major problems, and we should adjust and put the budget proposal to a vote, probably at the beginning of next week,” he highlighted.

The rapporteur committed to presenting his opinion on the PLOA on Sunday (16). Then, a period opens for the presentation of amendments by the parties on Monday (17), with the 2025 Budget scheduled to be voted on in the Joint Budget Committee (CMO) on Tuesday (18) or Wednesday (19) next week.

The 2025 budget should have been voted on at the end of last year, as mandated by the Federal Constitution. However, due to a lack of agreement, the vote on the budget was postponed until this year.