MP on rural debts gains strength and vote in the Senate may be postponed

The renegotiation of rural debts has once again come to a standstill in negotiations between the government, Congress and the productive sector, and the vote on PL (Bill) 5122/23 in the CAE (Economic Affairs Committee) of the Senate, scheduled for Tuesday (26), may leave the agenda due to the lack of consensus.

According to a CNN investigation, the possibility of issuing an MP (Provisional Measure) gained strength behind the scenes after new impasses in conversations between technicians from the economic team and parliamentarians and became the most viable option to move forward with the proposal in time for the 26/27 Harvest Plan, which will be announced in July.

Last Friday (22), the government presented a proposal to the Senate and House technicians prepared a counterproposal. Until this Monday (25), however, there had been no formal return from the Treasury, according to reports from interlocutors involved in the negotiations.

The main obstacle continues to be the inclusion of debts contracted with free interest, outside of official rural credit lines. The Treasury resists expanding the scope of the proposal, especially in states like Rio Grande do Sul, which concentrates a relevant part of rural liabilities in private operations.

The economic team's assessment is that a broad renegotiation could reduce the supply of credit to the sector and compromise resources from the next Harvest Plan. The concern had already been expressed by the Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan, in an interview with CNN last week.

"We cannot let a text be approved in Congress that takes over any and all agricultural debt, including non-performing debt, debt owed by those who do not need renegotiation. Because we could create a credit restriction problem", he said.

As CNN showed, the Treasury is discussing alternatives such as the creation of a guarantee fund for producers and tenants, in an attempt to build a negotiated solution with banks and parliamentarians, without excessively expanding the scope of the renegotiation.

Behind the scenes, interlocutors claim that the government considers the current text too comprehensive and is trying to calibrate criteria, sources of resources and accession conditions before a definitive agreement.

Meanwhile, parliamentarians and agricultural entities are pushing for a definition this week, given the proximity of the new Harvest Plan cycle, scheduled to begin in July.

The project is on the agenda of the CAE meeting this Tuesday (26), but members of the negotiations admit the possibility of further postponement if there is no agreement until the vote.

Source: CNN