'There is a risk of not being able to pay November's salaries'

Brasilia 247 - The head of the Civil House of the Federal District, Hélio Doyle, informed this Friday (15) that there is a risk that the salaries of civil servants will not be paid in November of this year if the local government maintains the current revenue. According to the official, there is also the possibility that the December salary will not be paid and will be pushed to the following year.

"If we maintain the current situation, that is, with the revenue projection we have today, without these measures, without cutting more operating expenses, we run the risk of not being able to pay November's salaries. The risk, without wanting to cause any alarm, exists," he stated. The interview was given to Bom Dia DF.

With the goal of easing the financial crisis, the Executive branch announced this Thursday that it will propose a package of measures to the Legislative Chamber to increase revenue.

Among the proposals are a project for the sale of shares in state-owned companies and government land, the creation of a supplementary pension plan for new civil servants, regulation of special retirement benefits, including for the disabled, regulation of funeral assistance, and securitization of the Federal District's debts.

Doyle emphasized that for the Federal District government to move out of the prudential limit set by the Fiscal Responsibility Law, it is necessary to reduce the payroll. According to him, however, he stated that there are no more public employees who can be cut.

"We don't have much more room to cut in the payroll; we've already made a very large reduction in appointed officials. We can do more, but today the public administration in the Federal District depends heavily on appointed officials. We have to make this adjustment over time to give more priority to tenured civil servants," he added. The official did not rule out the possibility of firing tenured civil servants if the government exceeds the limits of fiscal responsibility.

Other measures

To increase revenue, the GDF (Government of the Federal District) is considering raising the IPTU (Property Tax) and making a small change for those who buy a new car next year. The buyer will not pay IPVA (Vehicle Property Tax) in the first year. But from the second year onwards, the tax will increase from 3,5% to 4% of the vehicle's value.

Another measure is to increase the public cleaning fee. The government will still calculate the amount of the increase. According to the Executive branch, R$ 220 million is spent on garbage collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal, but only R$ 109 million is collected.

The Federal District government intends to reduce collection costs, and one of the measures to be taken would be to hold large companies and Brasília Airport, for example, responsible for collecting the waste they produce.

"The increase is really necessary because the system is unfair today. Those who have little waste are paying the same as large companies that have a much larger waste collection volume. It may weigh more heavily on large companies, large supermarkets, larger businesses," Doyle stated.

According to him, "the garbage collection fee is far below what is needed to cover collection services in the Federal District." "Even though we are currently working on a new bidding process and trying to lower this collection cost, it's a necessary adjustment, and the garbage collection fee in the Federal District is one of the lowest in the country."