Lupi argues that payroll interest should follow Selic – 09/20/2023 – Market

Minister Carlos Lupi (Social Security) defended that the interest ceiling on the INSS (National Social Security Institute) loan should follow the reduction in the Selic rate.

“Our intention is to set this rate as a reference so that, every time the Central Bank reduces the rate, we can follow the same proportionality in the rates of the payroll system”, said the minister in a debate in the Chamber of Deputies this Wednesday (20 ).

On August 21st, the new ceiling for interest on INSS payroll loans came into force, at 1.91% per month.

There is an expectation that, at the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) meeting this Wednesday, the Selic rate will be reduced.

Without mentioning the meeting, the minister said that the idea “is to always follow the average rate that the Central Bank lowers; it goes down in the system, it will go down here in the payroll.”

The maximum rate charged to retirees and pensioners in this modality is approved by the CNPS (National Social Security Council).

The minister presented data that banks are offering payroll loans at interest rates below the ceiling.

Lupi also told deputies that, when he took office, he found an INSS waiting list of 1.8 million benefit requests. Now, according to him, there are around 1.650 million applications.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) last week sent a bill to the National Congress that creates a program to reduce the Social Security queue.

With this, the minister declared that he hopes that, by the end of December, it will be possible to “comply with all these requests within the maximum period allowed by law, which is 45 days.”

He explained that, in addition to the queue, he has received more requests for benefits per month. In August, for example, 1 million applications were filed, which is a record.