Bolsonaro says pandemic emergency aid should return in March, for 4-month period

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday, February 11th, that a new round of emergency aid should begin to be paid in March, for a period of up to four months. The chief executive said that this is the alternative currently under discussion between the executive branch and Congress. However, he stated that the amount of each payment has not yet been determined.

“It is almost certain, we don’t know the value yet. With all certainty – it may not be – as of March, (for) three, four months,” he said to journalists after a government event in Alcântara (MA). “This is what is being settled with the executive and congress also because we must have fiscal responsibility,” he added.

The president did not detail how many people will be covered by this new aid round. For his part, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has said that the plan is to cover half of the 64 million beneficiaries who received it last year. Neither the president nor the minister disclosed the selection criteria.

Earlier, during an event to hand out rural title deeds, Bolsonaro had signaled that the government is considering granting new emergency aid installments “for a few months”.

In January, the president had said that reinstating the aid would bankrupt Brazil. However, he now says that there will be a new round, but that the benefit’s reinstatement “represents great indebtedness for our country.”

To journalists after the ceremony, he reiterated that the aid is costly for the country. “Retirement pension, the BPC (Continuous Benefit Program) is eternal, okay? And this is an emergency issue, because it is expensive for Brazil,” he said.

Bolsonaro stressed his support for the resumption of normal business activities, unrestricted by the Covid-19 pandemic. “It is not enough to just grant another period of emergency aid, trade must start operating again, we have to put an end to this ‘closing everything’ business. We must take care of the elderly and people with co-morbidities, the others must work, otherwise, if we get into too much debt, Brazil may lose credit and then inflation will come, the debt now stands at R$5 trillion, then chaos will ensue. No one wants that,” he declared.

Guedes accepts paying three more R$200 installments, but conditions a new round on the approval by Congress of fiscal adjustment measures, such as spending cuts for civil servants, and a legal basis, preferably a constitutional amendment, which could either consist of a calamity clause or a new version of the “war budget” that would allow the government to increase spending beyond fiscal restraints.

Source: Noticias ao Minuto