Government announces cooperation measures for states and municipalities to combat the pandemic

The R$ 88.2 billion package consists of several actions that include transfer, financing lines and legislative actions

Publicado em 14/04/2020 15h10

The President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, announced on Monday (March 23rd), together with the special secretary of Finance of the Ministry of Economy, Waldery Rodrigues, a cooperation package for states and municipalities to fight Covid-19. In order to allocate more resources to public health for the fight against the pandemic, the maintenance of jobs and the reconstruction of the country, a package of R$ 88.2 billion was announced, consisting of several actions that include transfer, lines of funding and legislative actions - some of which make up the Federative Pact.

The main measures - R$ 88.2 billion:

Measures	Amount
Transfer to health	R$ 8 billion
FPE and FPM recomposition	R$ 16 billion
Social Assistance Budget	R$ 2 billion
Suspension of States' debts to the Union	RS 12,6 billion
Renegotiation with banks	R$ 9,6 billion
Credit operations	R$ 40 billion

According to the Special Secretary of Finance, the meeting was well received by the governors of the North and Northeast. Besides discussing the measures of the Ministry of Economy, logistic actions were discussed with the Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcisio Gomes, and the Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta.

Among the actions discussed by the governors, they highlighted the need to include renegotiation with international banks, as well as a discussion on how to distribute resources.

The special secretary of Finance, Waldery Rodrigues highlighted that in addition to immediate actions such as transfers of resources to Health, there are important legislative actions to be taken, such as PLP 149 and elements of the Federative Pact, which would be important for the recovery of entities in the face of the crisis.

Family Allowance Program

The Federal Government also announced the expansion of the Bolsa Família ("Family Allowance Program"), covering 1.2 million new families. The goal is to zero the line of the program that benefits more than 14.3 million low-income families all over Brazil.