The State Treasury launched, this Friday (12), in the auditorium of the Unisinos campus, in Porto Alegre, the Rio Grande do Sul Public Debt Annual Report for 2022. The document shows that the Rio Grande do Sul debt balance do Sul reached BRL 93.6 billion in 2022, which corresponds to an increase of 8.7% compared to the previous year, an increase due, according to the Finance Department (Sefaz), mainly due to the growth of the correction index currency. The information is from Secom do Estado.
According to the report, the State’s funded public debt currently consists of 17 loan agreements. Among these, nine come from national operations (domestic debt) and eight, international (external debt), in addition to installments of social security debts, other social contributions and precatorios.
The effective service of the public debt, which comprises the payment of interest, amortizations and commissions on loans, reached the amount of R$ 881 million in 2022. Compared to the previous year, there was a nominal drop of 4.9%. The sum of payments to the Union was R$ 635 million, which represents 73% of the State’s disburts. If there were no Tax Recovery Regime (RRF), ordinary debt payments would have been R$ 4.8 billion last year.
Regarding commitments with precatories, the State paid R$ 800 million in the previous year, a growth of 15.5% compared to 2021. The stock of the balance of precatories experienced an increase of 8%, reaching the amount of R $ 16.5 billion, an increase that is related to the monetary correction index, linked to the Selic rate. There was also an increase in disburts via the Conciliation Chamber, which went from R$ 202.7 million in 2021 to R$ 364.5 million last year – an increase of 80%.
Composition of the state public debt – Photo: Reproduction/Sefaz/Disclosure/JC
State Treasury Secretary defends that Tax Recovery Regime be adjusted
According to the Treasury secretary, Pricilla Santana, the logation of the Fiscal Recovery Regime (RRF) marks a process of change in the management of liabilities. The refinancing allowed the staggering of debt service with the Union and other contracts for nine years, through a payment schedule with gradual and progressive percentages, whose full financial commitments will only be resumed in 2031.
For the manager, however, the redesign of the goals and commitments of the refinancing program, in particular the change in the debt correction index, needs to be adjusted to the new fiscal situation of the federative entities and to the monetary context of the federal government. With the approval of Complementary Law 148, in 2014, the state debt with the Union began to be adjusted annually by the so-called Monetary Update Coefficient (CAM), calculated based on the lowest index between the accumulated monthly variation of the National Consumer Price Index Broad (IPCA) + 4%, limited to the Selic rate. In 2022, the accumulated correction reached the percentage of 7.1%. For this year, the projection is that the index will reach around 9%.
According to Eduardo Lacher, undersecretary of the State Treasury, even though there has been a significant improvement in the financial sustainability of the State after the ratification of the RRF, the projections of the debt profile with the Union are still a point of attention. “The concern lies mainly with the monetary correction index applied, which we understand to be volatile and high, causing the debt correction to be raised to levels that extrapolate the State’s payment capacity”, he explains.
For 2023, the payment schedule established in the RRF foresees that the monthly debt service will be R$ 2.1 billion, of which 96% refer to disburts to the Union and the rest to other debts.