Rodrigo Pacheco: This initiative also adds to a decision made by the National Congress to relieve municipalities with up to 156,000 inhabitants from payroll charges.
Rodrigo Pacheco: That was a Federal Senate bill, authored by the Federal Senate, approved by the Senate and by the Chamber of Deputies, and which we long fought to have maintained.
It resulted in a reduction of the rate from 20% to 8% for small and medium-sized municipalities across Brazil, especially in Minas Gerais, which is the state with the largest number of municipalities in the Republic — 853 municipalities.
Rodrigo Pacheco: This was very important for the finances of those municipalities in Minas and throughout Brazil, particularly in 2024, when they were able to close their accounts, and it allowed municipal public policies to be implemented thanks to those savings on the social security contribution, arising from this Senate bill.
Rodrigo Pacheco: It also adds to a structuring project, also authored by this Federal Senate, which is Propag (Program for Full Payment of State Debts), which is very important for the State of Minas Gerais, one of the most indebted states of the Republic, and which now, through Propag — through a complementary law passed in the Senate, also approved in the Chamber of Deputies and sanctioned by President Lula — allows us to have a more appropriate, more palatable, more reasonable negotiation with the Union, with a very considerable reduction in the interest on that debt, permitting a broader negotiation, including the use of state assets to pay that debt.