Commission approves basic text of LDO 2024 with increase for amendments

The National Congress’s Mixed Budget Committee approved this Wednesday (13) the basic text of the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) project, which creates the basis of the 2024 Budget.

The panel will still analyze the highlights, which may change parts of the proposal. Afterwards, the project will still have to be voted on by the Congress plenary, which, according to government leaders, should only happen next week.

The text presented by rapporteur Danilo Forte (União-CE) underwent several changes to please both the opposition and the federal government. The goal of zero deficit next year, as defended by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, was maintained.

There was an agreement to maintain a deadline for mandatory parliamentary amendments, that is, mandatory amendments for the government – individual and state bench amendments. According to the rapporteur, the commitment (reserve) of resources must be made 30 days after the proposals are announced.

All payments must be made in the first half of 2024 in the case of transfers from the Union to federated entities in the areas of health and social assistance.

The rapporteur decided to maintain the percentage allocated to commission amendments, which should correspond to 0.9% of last year’s net current revenue, that is, around R$11 billion; in 2023, this value was R$6.8 billion.

The provision that collections to system S – a group of entities such as Sesc, Senai and Sesi – would be collected, inspected and charged by the Federal Revenue Service was removed from the text. The measure could remove R$40 billion from the Union and also displeased businesspeople, who did not want to be subject to contingencies.

Electoral fund

In relation to the electoral fund, the rapporteur determined a ceiling of R$4.9 billion, an item that will be used by the parties to cover expenses for the 2024 municipal elections. The amount is equivalent to the amount authorized for these expenses in 2022, the reference year

The federal government had sent it. the proposal expected to cost just R$900 million, which provoked criticism from parliamentarians. However, the exact amount of the “fundão” will be defined by deputies and senators during the vote on the Budget.

Forte did not specify where the resources to supply the fund will come from. He even proposed that part of it come from the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), but the idea did not prosper.