The Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government is already working on the possibility of making the fiscal target of federal state-owned companies more flexible in 2026 to absorb the costs of the Correios restructuring plan.
According to an investigation by the Folha de S. Paulothe internal assessment is that, without this change, the Executive would have to repeat in the middle of an election year the spending block adopted in 2025, when it needed to hold back R$3 billion to compensate for the larger deficit of public companies.
The imbalance mainly arises from the rescue package for the Post Office. , which will finance a broad financial reorganization program: voluntary layoffs, settlement of late payments, debt settlement and operational modernization.
Continues after advertising
Although the loan enters the account as financial income, and therefore does not impact the fiscal target, the expenses generated by it are classified as primary, which puts pressure on the results of state-owned companies.
The 2026 PLDO, sent to Congress in April, before the crisis deepened, authorizes a deficit of up to R$6.75 billion for state-owned companies, in addition to an extra R$5 billion for PAC investments.
Government interlocutors tell the newspaper that this value is no longer compatible with Correios’ sustainability plan. The tendency, they say, is to raise the deficit limit for state-owned companies to 2026, as long as the company presents a clear schedule and firm commitment to the restructuring measures.
There is still no final number, which will depend on the state-owned company’s updated projections.
Flexibility, however, is not a consensus. One wing of the government fears a negative impact on investor perception, especially in light of the effect on public debt.
Although the target for state-owned companies is calculated separately, a larger deficit could put pressure on the indicator, at a time when the government seeks to demonstrate commitment to the new fiscal framework. For 2026, the central government’s target foresees a surplus of 0.25% of GDP, with a margin for zero deficit.
Continues after advertising
