Two projects are expected to move through the Plenary Sessions of the Legislative Houses this week, reports the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA). One of them is Bill 5.122/2023, which deals with rural indebtedness. The text is scheduled to be analyzed this Wednesday (10), in the Federal Senate. The articulations have been taking place with the objective of mobilizing senators for the approval of the proposal and also avoiding vetoes by the Executive. “What was built in the Senate is something viable, that stands on its own. We need to guarantee this. So, I ask for everyone's support so that we can move forward with this text. This is extremely necessary. It is the number one point for rural producers in Brazil,” said the president of the FPA, deputy Pedro Lupion (Republicanos-PR), during the group's lunch meeting this Tuesday (9). The latest opinion on the project has faced resistance from the Ministry of Finance and banks. Among the points questioned are the use of resources from funds, such as the Social Fund, and the inclusion of non-bank debts. Lupion countered the criticism. Regarding the funds, he defended that the alternative constructed represents a solution to a problem pointed out since last year by the Treasury itself: the lack of primary resources for debt renegotiation. As for the inclusion of non-bank debts, Lupion emphasized that it is necessary to look at the chain as a whole, since part of the financing of a harvest does not come only from banks. “The producer's debt today is not just bank debt. We have bank debt, but we also have debt with suppliers, cooperatives, grain companies, and traders. So, we can't leave it only at bank debt; that doesn't solve the producer's problem,” he commented. For the Institutional Coordinator of the FPA, Deputy Alceu Moreira (MDB-RS), it is important to have alignment so that the measure is effective and does not remain just rhetoric. “It is very important that there is no demagoguery, opportunism, or people trying to portray themselves as the good guys and treat others as the bad guys. Because it is pointless to approve a proposal in the Senate that does not have at least a minimum agreement with the government. Otherwise, they will veto it and we will not have the expected result.” Deputy Pedro Westphalen (PP-RS) recalled the situation many producers are in. “There is no plan B. The rural producer is effectively bankrupt.” Producers from Rio Grande do Sul have promised a mobilization in Brasília (DF) to pressure for the vote. According to the coordinator of the FPA's Labor Commission, Deputy Afonso Hamm (PP-RS), it is necessary to guarantee the advances achieved in the text approved in the Economic Affairs Committee (CAE). “The federal government is preparing a substitute in the same mold as the one it tried to present in the CAE. Thanks to the firmness of Senator Renan Calheiros and the other senators, including Senator Jaime Bagattoli and Senator Tereza Cristina, we managed to approve the expansion of the text,” he highlighted. A competitive advantage for biofuels will be included in the bill. Another proposal on the agenda of the parliamentary group is Complementary Law Project (PLP) 114/2026. The original text guarantees the use of extra revenue from the rise in oil prices to apply tax benefits to fuels. The intention is to reduce the cost of the product for the final consumer, given the price increases caused by the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. Despite the intention, the original project did not include biofuels, which could be considered unconstitutional. The competitive differentiation between ethanol, biodiesel, and fossil fuels is provided for in the Constitution. Therefore, the text that should be presented by the rapporteur and vice-president of the FPA for the Central-West region, Deputy Marussa Boldrin (Republicanos-GO), will include this guarantee. "The competitive advantage was an essential and crucial demand for the ethanol and biodiesel sector, to maintain the differential of biofuel in relation to fossil fuels. And we managed to include that," said Boldrin when commenting on the negotiations with the government regarding the PLP. Along the same lines, the vice-president of the FPA, deputy Arnaldo Jardim (Cidadania-SP), stressed that this point does not represent an additional benefit to biofuels. “The rapporteur’s opinion is aimed at restoring the differential. It is not favoritism. It is so that biofuels have the conditions to face this issue,” he defended. The expectation of the caucus is that the text will be considered in the Plenary of the Chamber of Deputies next Wednesday (10). After being approved, the proposal will go to the Senate.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.