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On Thursday (21/07), Civil House Minister Ciro Nogueira, said that the Federal Executive intends to start paying the Auxílio Brasil of R$ 600 until August 9th. Regarding the R$ 1,000 voucher for truck drivers, the objective is to start payment on August 5th. The Minister also admitted the difficulty in providing the benefit to taxi drivers, which should start being paid only at the end of August. This is because the government does not have a record of all professionals in this area of the country and payment will depend on a partnership with city halls.
No Electoral Objective
Regarding Auxílio Brasil, he denied that the social benefits have an electoral purpose and said that the goal is to get the money to all beneficiaries as soon as possible. However, political commentators states that the Government wants to pat these benefits to leverage its popularity and help the President in his reelection campaign.
The Constitutional Amendment
The payment of benefits will only be possible thanks to the approval of a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution that circunvents the laws that deal with elections and public accounts to allow the government to boost social benefits. For that, it was necessary to stablish a state of emergency in the country.
R$ 600 in 2023?
Members of Jair Bolsonaro’s economic team told journalists that the temporary R$ 200 increase in Auxílio Brasil – until December this year – should remain next year. This is the same position of former president Lula. The two candidates lead the polls for voting intentions for president.
However, today, there is no room in the budget for a program of this size on a permanent basis, according to the spending cap. The Auxílio Brasil costs R$ 90 billion. This amount would rise to R$ 150 billion per year to maintain payments of R$ 600. So far, neither candidate has explained how it would be possible to maintain the benefit, there are no concrete proposals on how the increase in spending can be financed.
