Government leaders criticize proposed cuts in Bolsa Família

The government leader in the Senate, Delcídio Amaral, criticized Tuesday (Oct. 20) the proposal of the rapporteur of the Annual Budget Act, Deputy Ricardo Barros, to slash $2.59 billion from the Bolsa Família conditional cash transfer program as a strategy to prevent new beneficiary enrollments in the program while avoiding cuts for those already enrolled. The proposed cut would reduce the program budget by 35%.

“That's complete nonsense,” Amaral criticized, suggesting that other alternatives should be sought to mitigate the government's financial strain without cutting from social programs.

According to the government leader, adopting economic measures proposed by the Executive could help save public finance. He argued the government's proposals would have strong economic impact and foster a better business environment and outlook for Brazil, and instanced the revival of the provisional tax on financial transactions (CPMF) and the repatriation of illegal offshore remittances from Brazil.

The Minister of Social Development and Fight against Hunger, Tereza Campello, said she is ready to talk to the Chamber of Deputies to provide them with data and information about Bolsa Família as an effort to persuade them to maintain the full $7.4 billion budgeted for the program for 2016.

“I believe there's a lot we have to talk about, we're convinced that the resources for Bolsa Família have been correctly estimated for next year,” she said. The minister spoke to reporters after giving a TV interview to an EBC broadcast.

The welfare program celebrated its 12th anniversary Tuesday (20). During the interview, Tereza Campello talked about its achievements and explained the program currently spends about 0.5% of the Gross Domestic Product to support some 14 million households. “[That's] Fifty million people, and half of them are under 18 years old,” she noted.

The program is targeted at families in poverty (with per capita incomes between $19.92 and $39.84 a month) and extreme poverty (up to a monthly $19.90 per capita).

*With additional reporting by Luciano Nascimento and Michèlle Canes

Translated by Mayra Borges

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