Levy faces the lions of Congress today.
The Finance Minister will attempt to negotiate an agreement in the Senate's Economic Affairs Committee regarding the adjustment of state and municipal debts to the federal government; "The minister is playing an important game to preserve fiscal adjustment. Afterwards, he will have to face negotiations for changes to measures that restrict access to survivor's pensions and unemployment insurance," comments 247 columnist Tereza Cruvinel; read the full article.
By Tereza Cruvinel, from 247
With expectations of a crisis between President Dilma and Minister Joaquim Levy having failed, due to a phrase that could sound both critical and defensive of her and the government, the minister now faces the lions of Congress in the Senate's Economic Affairs Committee, where he will attempt to negotiate an agreement on the adjustment of debts owed by states and municipalities to the federal government.
Levy will propose that the federative entities continue paying their debts using the current indicator, the IGPI (plus interest of 6 to 9%), under the commitment that, next year, when the fiscal adjustment has already passed its most acute phase, throughout this year, the Union will reimburse them for the difference in relation to the new indicator established in the law already approved but not yet regulated, which provides for correction by the IPCA (plus interest of 4%).
If the formula, which has been negotiated individually with the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, is accepted by the parties, and especially by the PMDB, which is leading the movement for the immediate implementation of the changes, the bill already approved by the Chamber could be withdrawn from the agenda or modified to incorporate the agreement.
The minister is therefore playing an important game to preserve fiscal adjustment. Afterwards, he will have to face negotiations for changes to the measures that restrict access to survivor's pensions and unemployment insurance. A negotiation within the CAE (Committee on Economic Affairs) that already includes changes to these provisional measures, in exchange for postponing the adjustment of debts, is not ruled out.
Another step forward for "white parliamentarism".
In a meeting they had yesterday with Minister Levy, PMDB senators Renan Calheiros and Romero Jucá presented yet another PMDB proposal that encroaches on presidential prerogatives: the approval, by Congress, of the name proposed by the presidents to head the Central Bank, and the establishment of a five-year term for the incumbent, so that each president will govern in the first year with a Central Bank president chosen by their predecessor.
During the campaign, Dilma opposed this proposal when it was defended by Senator Aécio Neves, the PSDB candidate.