2023-11-14 16:23:55
The controversy over the fiscal goal does not remove the great agreement that unites Lula, Haddad, Lira and bankers around the Fiscal Framework
By: Diego Cruz
President Lula’s speech on the 27th caused a certain stir, by implying that the government would not meet the so-called “fiscal goal” for 2024, which he himself had approved in the National Congress. To be honest, he didn’t even say that he wouldn’t meet it, but instead stated that “whatever we can do to meet the fiscal goal, we will do it, what I can say is that it doesn’t need to be zero.”
What is this “fiscal goal”? It is the objective set by the government for the coming years, both in the Fiscal Framework (the new Expenditure Ceiling that, like Temer’s ceiling, restricts public spending to pay the debt to bankers), and in the budget itself. 2024. Closing the deficit means “matching” income with expenses, excluding the principal from this account: the interest on the debt.
The market itself was already counting on the non-compliance with the zero deficit. Not for lack of government effort, let’s say, since there were cuts in Health, Education and, more recently, in research through the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
The point is that, to achieve this, the government would have to raise at least 168 billion reais more. And what is happening is the opposite, among other factors, due to the slowdown in China and the dependent nature of the Brazilian economy.
rehearsed play
In front of the cameras, Lula complains about the market; but, in practice, his entire economic policy is focused on the interests of the large national and international monopolies.
El Marco left Haddad’s office, with the agreement of Lula and Arthur Lira, and with an objective considered “ambitious”, in order to serve this same market; or, to put it clearly, the bankers, the large investment funds – like the North American company BlackRock, which makes a fortune parasitizing the country with high interests. And, to do this, he released something around 8,000 million reais from the “secret budget” to buy votes in Congress.
An image of internal crisis was created in the government, in which the so-called “political wing” pressed for more spending, while another, the “economic” wing, headed by Haddad, would be committed to adjustment and the market. This cliché of the good cop and the bad cop barely stands up to the facts. Lula, Haddad, Arthur Lira and the Centrão, as well as the bankers and the bourgeoisie as a whole, are united around the new roof.
The differences are reduced to opening a minimum space in the budget, around 0.25%, to make some few works viable for the elections, but which do not represent any significant change in the austerity regime and the cutting of expenses. A raid also fueled by the latest surveys, which already reveal the wear and tear of the government.
Privatization advances
While resolving the magnitude of the reduction for the coming years, the government is moving forward with Public-Private Partnerships (Public-Private Partnerships – PPP, in Portuguese) and privatizations in practically all sectors: from basic sanitation, to maintaining the Private Eletrobras (we are seeing the results of this in São Paulo), even the prisons.
Program: dSpend the Fiscal Framework and all expense ceilings
To reverse the dismantling of public services, and prevent its deepening, it is necessary to completely repeal Lula’s Fiscal Framework, and all fiscal adjustment mechanisms, such as the Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF), replacing it with a Social Responsibility Law .
It is necessary to stop paying the debt to the bankers, redirect this money to Health, Education, employment, housing, sanitation and agrarian reform, stop all privatizations, revoke outsourcing and recover the companies delivered, under control from the workers.
Privileges: eThe nonsense of taxing the super-rich
At the end of October, the Chamber approved the taxation of the so-called “exclusive funds”, a type of fund that, just to be opened, requires R$ 10 million [ dos millones de dólares, aprox.]. It is estimated that only 2,500 Brazilians have this type of account, which would accumulate, in total, an amount of R$ 756,000 million.
The very existence of these funds is an excrescence, since their returns are not subject to appraisal. The tycoon only pays a 15% commission when he withdraws the money. While a worker, who receives a little more than two minimum wages, is assessed at source, by the Income Tax, and a low-income family leaves a large part of their income in taxes on consumption, these super-rich fatten their fortunes without pay a penny.
Christmas presentation
What does the project presented by the government and modified in the House do? It imposes a 15% tax on returns every six months, as with other funds. Well, isn’t it? The problem is that it reduces this withdrawal rate from 15% to 8%.
What will happen, then, is that these people will simply change their fund, for another that remains exempt, such as the agricultural investment fund, Fiagro. Someone who has accumulated R$ 10 million after years of exemptions could keep that money, leaving R$ 1.5 million in taxes. Now, you will only pay R$ 800,000. A Christmas gift for the super rich.
Shaming the rich
It is not surprising that the Provisional Measure of the Lula government was drafted during the Temer government and defended by none other than Temer himself. Instead of taxing the rich, he will relieve them even more, causing a loss valued at R$20 billion.
Article published in www.opiniaosociaista.com.br8/11/2023.-
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
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