The Senate plenary is scheduled to analyze, this Wednesday (10), the bill (PL) that allocates resources from the Pre-Salt Social Fund to finance debts of farmers who lost part of their harvest due to climatic calamities. The government expressed its opposition to the opinion of the rapporteur, Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), because he did not accept demands presented by the Ministry of Finance to modify the text that came from the Chamber of Deputies, says a note from "Agência Brasil". Bill 5,122 of 2023, approved in the Senate's Economic Affairs Committee (CAE) at the end of May, also provides for the use of revenues from other funds, such as the Northeast Financing Fund (FNE), the North Financing Fund (FNO) and the Central-West Financing Fund (FCO). Currently, 50% of the Pre-Salt Fund must go to education. The other half is divided among areas such as social housing, health, science and technology, culture and sport.
The limit will be defined by the Executive.
The text that arrived from the Chamber of Deputies foresaw between R$ 30 billion and R$ 100 billion to finance farmers' debts. However, Senator Renan Calheiros transferred the definition of the spending limit for agricultural refinancing to the Executive Branch.
Pre-salt Social Fund
Created in 2010 to finance permanent policies with resources from the pre-salt oil reserves, a finite resource, the fund has undergone changes over the years, with the inclusion of new responsibilities. In 2025, a provisional measure (MP) from the federal government, later transformed into law by Parliament, included the financing of social housing policies and climate change mitigation, also serving as a source of resources for the reconstruction of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) after the floods of May 2024.
Debate in the Senate
The bill, scheduled for a plenary vote this Wednesday by Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), was criticized by the government, which would like to have some demands met, as explained on the day of the vote in the CAE (Committee on Economic Affairs) by the government leader in the Senate, Jacques Wagner (PT-BA). “We didn't reach a common ground, and the report, while it absorbs some things, still has contradictions with the Ministry of Finance. My intention is that we could effectively return to the negotiating table,” said the government leader. Rapporteur Renan Calheiros commented that he accepted several demands from the Ministry of Finance, but that he did not meet all the requests because, according to him, it would make aid to rural producers unfeasible. “[Among the government's suggestions, we accepted] the removal of previously proposed fixed global limits and the adoption of the eligibility criterion based on the occurrence of two 30% losses [of the crop] in two harvests,” said Renan. On the other hand, the rapporteur did not accept the ministry's suggestion to reduce the limits for producers to qualify for the program, nor did he accept the request to increase the refinancing interest rate to 12%. The bill sets interest rates between 3.5% and 7.5%. When contacted, the Ministry of Finance declined to comment. The financing foreseen in the project has a limit of R$ 10 million per beneficiary and R$ 50 million per association or cooperative of producers, with a repayment term of ten years, plus a three-year grace period.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.