On Tuesday (10), Guedes asks Maia and Alcolumbre that Congress votes in favor of priority proposals to 'shield' the Brazilian economy
Economy Minister Paulo Guedes sent a letter to the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The document requested that nineteen priority proposals on the economic agenda be approved. These include sixteen bills or provisional measures and three proposed amendments to the Constitution.
In the document obtained by TV Globo, the request made to Congressman Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ) and Senator Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP). Guedes emphasizes the “need to protect the Brazilian economy” in the face of the current economic scenario.
“These are infra-constitutional matters that are already being processed and that are extremely relevant to safeguard the country's economy, increase legal security for businesses and attract investments,” says Guedes in the letter.
Among the proposals are the privatization of Eletrobrás, the autonomy of the Central Bank, the provisional measure of the Green and Yellow Program, and also the new legal frameworks for gas, the electricity sector, basic sanitation, railways and concessions.
PECs in requests
The minister also spoke to the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate regarding the need to approve three Proposed Amendments to the Constitution (PECs) that make structural changes to the public accounts: the Federative Pact PEC, the Emergency PEC and the Funds PEC.
According to Guedes, such changes to the Constitution will enable and allow “the country to have balanced accounts and promote the transformation of the Brazilian State in favor of providing better services to citizens”.
Bills and provisional measures have simpler processing and could supposedly be approved in a shorter period of time. PECs, on the other hand, are related to the Federal Constitution and have slower processing times. And they require more favorable votes than a common bill.
The international crisis
In the letter sent to the Legislature, Paulo Guedes states that, if approved in the first half of the year, the economic agenda has the capacity to “protect Brazil from the external crisis”. The minister stated that the government’s economic team “closely monitors the evolution of the international and domestic scenarios”.
“With the continuation of the structural reforms that the country needs, it will be possible to recover sufficient fiscal space to grant other stimuli to the economy,” said the minister.