Minas Gerais Agency | Secretary of Finance defends dialogue and political solution to state debt

The Secretary of State for Finance of Minas Gerais (SEF/MG), Luiz Claudio Gomes, defended, this Tuesday (7/5), a political solution based on dialogue for the construction of a viable project from the financial perspective of the States to resolve the debt of the federation’s entities.

He was one of the debaters at the seminar held by the newspaper Valor Econômico, in Brasília, to discuss the “Interest for Education” program, presented by the federal government at the end of March.

The program proposes reducing interest on States’ debts linked to investment in technical education. Luiz Claudio reiterated that the Ministry of Finance’s proposal does not meet the needs of Minas Gerais, since the Government of Minas Gerais already has the largest vocational education initiative in the country: Trilhas do Futuro.

For Gomes, therefore, expanding this investment would require additional expenditure, well above the constitutional index for Education.

During the event, the situations of Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais and São Paulo, the four most indebted states in the country, were highlighted. However, the debaters highlighted that the peculiarities between them require different solutions for each person’s debt.

“The Union itself, on several occasions, has already addressed this fiscal situation, particularly the debt. A major event was Law 9,496, of 1997, then the Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF) and the regulatory framework of the Fiscal Recovery Regime ( RRF). All of these instruments were intended to bring a healthy fiscal policy to the entities. We have evolved, but these policies have not solved all of the states’ fiscal problems, as a federation, we have to look for solutions”, concluded the Secretary of Finance of Minas.

The seminar was attended by the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, the executive secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Dario Durigan, and the secretary of the National Treasury, Rogério Ceron, as well as other state authorities and experts in the debate panels and as guests .

For SEF/MG, the undersecretary of the State Treasury, Fábio Amaral, and the Tax Recovery Advisory staff, Marcos Augusto Diniz, were also present.