The proposal to refinance the states’ debt with the Union, presented yesterday by the Ministry of Finance, could reduce, in ten years, Minas’ debt with the Union to R$89 billion. Today, Minas Gerais’ debt to the Union is around R$160 billion, but part of this amount is being negotiated, which corresponds to around R$143 million. According to the Fiscal Recovery Regime (RRF) proposal presented by governor Romeu Zema (Novo) last year, but not voted on by the Assembly, within the same period, the debt would rise to R$210 billion.
The information comes from the president of the Legislative Assembly, Tadeu Martins Leite, known as Tadeuzinho (MDB), in a press conference on the debt refinancing proposal, raised from a preliminary study carried out by the Legislature based on the information presented yesterday at a meeting of governors with the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad.
“Under the Fiscal Recovery Regime (RRF), at the end of the ten years, we would have a debt of R$210 billion. In the most conservative hypothesis of this first idea that the federal government presented yesterday (…) we will have, at the end of ten years, a debt of around R$89 billion”, stated the president.
However, according to Tadeuzinho, the intention is to modify the original proposal, and achieve a greater debt reduction for states that amortize their debts with the delivery of state-owned companies.
“If the State makes the sacrifice of handing over part of its state-owned companies in a percentage, it has to have a higher premium. So, what I will defend is that we have a higher amortization premium”, stated the president of ALMG.
Mariana Agreement
According to him, it is not enough to reduce interest rates, it is necessary to guarantee debt reduction, which can be done with the federalization of state-owned companies, and also with the use of credits that the states have with the Union. In the case of Minas Gerais, according to It has already been agreed that the credits for compensation owed to the state by the mining companies Vale and Samarco, due to the collapse of the Mariana dam in 2015, still under discussion in the Federal Court, will not be included in this deduction.
The president said that the federal government must send, within a maximum period of 60 days, the proposed bill to the National Congress. Meanwhile, according to him, the processing of the Zema government’s bills dealing with the RRF and the privatization of state-owned companies remains suspended in the Minas Gerais parliament.
Interest for education
The proposal presented by the Treasury, which will still have to pass the scrutiny of the National Congress, called “Interest for Education”, provides for a temporary reduction in the rates applied to debt contracts, between 2025 and 2030, for states that increase enrollment in secondary education technician. Debts may also be written off if shares in public companies are transferred to the federal government, limited to 20%.
The proposal of the President of the Assembly is that this reduction be of up to 50% for those who federalize their state-owned companies. Tadeu Martins also defended that the debt installments to be paid fit within the state budgets. “And that we start paying the principal of the debt and not just the interest, which is the big discussion”, he defended.
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