Haddad and governors of the Southeast and South discuss the states’ billion-dollar debts with the Union this Tuesday – News

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, meets this Tuesday morning (26) with governors of the Southeast and South to deal with the states’ billion-dollar debts with the Union. The Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, and the Secretary of the Treasury Nacional, Rogério Ceron, will also participate in the meeting.

Representatives from the seven state Executives will be at the meeting:
• Renato Casagrande (Holy Spirit);
• Romeo Zema (Minas Gerais);
• Claudio Castro (Rio de Janeiro);
• Tarcísio de Freitas (São Paulo);
• Junior Mouse (Paraná);
• Eduardo Leite (Rio Grande do Sul); It is
• Marilisa Boehm (Santa Catarina, vice-governor).

The renegotiation proposal that Haddad will present to participants already has the approval of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the federal government must send a bill on the topic to the National Congress by June.

The minister met with the president to discuss the matter last week. Haddad has also met with the governors of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul to discuss the topic.

Recently, Lula argued that it is the Executive’s obligation to discuss the debt with the states and spoke of complicity between federated entities. “We are determined to sit down with the governors and renegotiate the debts, so that we give everyone the right to breathe”, he highlighted.

The states’ debt to the Union comes from direct loans or from contracting, by Federation entities, of credit in the financial market with a guarantee from the Union. According to Palácio do Planalto, the Union paid R$ 1.22 billion in guaranteed debts overdue in February this year, with R$776.59 million from Minas Gerais; R$301.73 million from Rio de Janeiro; R$76.11 million from Goiás; and R$60.62 million from Rio Grande do Sul.

The Union covers the late amounts, but adds compensation, such as fines, interest, operational costs and retention of transfers — revenue from participation funds and taxes. Thus, the debt of Minas Gerais, for example, is almost R$160 billion.

An agreement between the federal government and the state, brokered by the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) and authorized by the STF (Supreme Federal Court), determined that the beginning of debt payment — which would be in December 2023 — would be extended to April.

Currently, Goiás, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul are part of the fiscal recovery regime (RRF), which includes installments and debt staggering in exchange for spending adjustment planning. São Paulo, which is not in the scheme, owes around R$272 billion.