Bolsonaro Criticizes and Suspends Minister Guedes’s “Renda Brasil” Project

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro has publicly criticized Renda Brasil, proposed to him by his economic team this week. Bolsonaro stated that the project is suspended and that he will not “take (resources) from the poorest” to supply the new program, introduced as a substitute for the ‘Bolsa Família’ (Family Grant).

“Yesterday we discussed the potential proposal of Renda Brasil. And I said ‘it’s suspended’, let’s talk again. The proposal, as the economic team showed me, will not be sent to Congress. I can not take from the poor to give to the extremely poor. We can’t do that,” said Bolsonaro, during an event in Minas Gerais, on Wednesday morning, August 26th.

Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes told the President that to reach the average benefit of R$300 (US$60), as Bolsonaro would like, health and education deductions must be cut from the Income Tax. Currently, the average amount paid by the family program developed during the PT (Worker’s Party) administration is R$190 per month.

Bolsonaro also confirmed that the Economic Ministry’s plan was to use the money that currently pays the workers’ salary bonus to fund part of Renda Brasil, but made it clear that he did not enjoy the prospect. “For instance, the issue of the bonus for those who earn up to two minimum wages, which would be like a fourteenth salary… We can’t take this from 12 million people to direct to a Bolsa Família, a Renda Brasil, whatever the program is called,” he said.

The President said that the “best program for the country”, in his opinion, is the generation of jobs. “Either Brazil starts to produce, to make a plan that interests all of us, which is employment, or we are doomed to failure. I can’t work miracles.”

Bolsonaro also stated that the new emergency aid instalments should be above the R$200 initially proposed by the economic team, but below the current R$600 directed to casual workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The amount will be neither R$200, nor R$600, we are debating with the economic team,” said the President.

“The emergency aid costs approximately R$50 billion per month. It is a heavy bill. We know that the R$600 is little for many who receive it, but it is a lot for a country that becomes indebted. And, unfortunately, as it is an emergency we must have an end to it,” he declared during Wednesday’s ceremony.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo