Senate extends Pronampe payment period to 6 years – 03/21/2023 – Market

The Senate approved this Tuesday (21) the MP (provisional measure) that extends the deadline for payment of Pronampe (National Support Program for Micro and Small Businesses) from four to six years.

The MP with the new rules for Pronampe was edited by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) three days before the second round of elections, in October last year. The MP was unanimously approved in the Senate and is now going to sanction.

The credit line linked to the basic interest rate (Selic) was created in May 2020 to help entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic. The program, however, was reissued with other conditions and the Selic, which was at 2.9% per year, reached 13.75% per year this year.

In the first edition, the program established a maximum annual interest rate equal to the Selic plus 1.25% on the amount granted. In the second edition, for operations contracted from January 2021, the annual interest rate jumped to Selic plus 6%.

As the MP expires at the beginning of April, the rapporteur, Senator Zenaide Maia (PSD-RN), maintained the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies at the beginning of the month and rejected the amendments presented by the parliamentarians.

Thus, the MP approved this Tuesday establishes a grace period of 12 months, extends the payment period from 60 months to 72 months, and determines that the maximum annual interest rate must be equal to the Selic plus 6%.

“We believe that, like several other publicly guaranteed credit programs, Pronampe should have its financial conditions established by law. Thus, we consider the ceiling healthy”, wrote the senator in her report.

Initially, Pronampe stipulated 36 months for companies to repay the loan. The term was first extended to 48 months, then to 60 months and now to 72 months.