The technical team of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, will meet with the Minister of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, and his assistants to discuss the package of spending cuts that has been prepared and will reach the department this Wednesday (13 ). The meeting should take place in the morning at the Ministry of Defense.
. According to Haddad, a proposal was made and the economic team is awaiting a definition from the military until this Wednesday to announce the project that has been designed in recent weeks.
The portfolio has the support of retirees in the general regime and in the civil public sector.
Defense only has a smaller budget than Social Security, Social Development, Health and Education on the Esplanada. According to data from the Transparency Portal of the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), the department forecasts R$127.9 billion for this year (2.22% of total public spending in 2024).
It turns out that the majority of this money, around 78%, is used to pay personnel, active duty, reserve and pension expenses – precisely the target of the economic team’s proposal for spending cuts.
A report from the Federal Audit Court (TCU) gave figures on the size of the deficit in career retirement and reignited debates about the need to review this policy.
According to the TCU, each retiree or pensioner under the general regime generates a per capita deficit of R$9,400 per year. In the case of civil servants, this value is R$69 thousand. The military, on the other hand, has an annual deficit of R$159,000 for each beneficiary.
Spending cuts
Haddad has been working together with the other ministers of the Budget Execution Board (JEO) on a .
In the last two weeks, in addition to the economic team, . According to him, all stages of negotiations with these departments have already been completed.
The awaited measures will be sent to the National Congress in the form of a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) and a complementary bill. Therefore, Lula wants to hear from the presidents of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), before any announcement.
