Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance) said he expects the government’s spending cut package to be finalized by Wednesday (13) and that another Esplanada ministry will be affected. He, however, did not reveal which folder will be affected.
The announcement of a possible outcome of the difficulty in reaching an agreement was made in the early evening of this Monday (11) after a meeting between Haddad and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) outside the official agenda.
“The president called for an effort to include a ministry in a negotiation that should be concluded by Wednesday (13). I won’t go any further because I don’t know if the ministry will have enough time to incorporate his request. But, I believe there will be good will for us to incorporate one more measure”, the minister told journalists.
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Although he did not reveal which ministry should be included in the fiscal adjustment package, Haddad stated that it will be from an area other than social, for which negotiation meetings concluded this weekend. The ministers responsible for benefits such as Bolsa Família, the Continuous Payment Benefit (BPC) and unemployment insurance have been holding negotiations for more than two weeks.
According to him, the original proposal presented to the president was not dehydrated, but improved with “more palatable” adjustments.
Haddad also stated that the data relating to social areas are already being forwarded to the Civil House to give the necessary guidance and that he will meet again with Lula this Tuesday (12) to define the projects that law should be forwarded to Congress related to spending cuts.
Lula’s official agenda, released at night, points out meetings with ministers who should be affected by the cut, such as Luiz Marinho (Labor and Employment), Carlos Lupi (Social Security) and Wellington Dias (Social Development). Haddad, however, said that these meetings will not be to discuss this issue.
According to him, a possible meeting between Lula and the presidents of the two houses of Congress – Arthur Lira (PP-AL), from the Chamber, and Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), from the Senate – will also be discussed this Tuesday (12).
“Those guidelines that we discussed from the beginning, to strengthen the fiscal framework and bring in what might not be behaving as we expected to consolidate this transition from a regime of high deficit and low growth to a regime of fiscal balance with sustainable growth ”, he pointed out. Among these expenses are the health and education floors, seen with reservations by the ministers in these areas.
Fernando Haddad also expressed his opposition to criticism from wings of his own party – the PT – against spending cuts that could achieve social benefits. According to him, this “hasn’t even been announced yet” and minimized the criticism by stating that “it’s natural for there to be debate”.
“We are very sure of what we are doing, it is for the good of the workers […] it is a balance between important variables for all Brazilians”, he said, highlighting that the government is concerned about the increase in the price of some products, but without mentioning which ones.
He also did not give a deadline for the package to be announced.
