Braziltopia

Brazil's federal government set aside R$ 44.8 billion for individual and state-delegation congressional amendments in its 2027 budget bill, delivered to Congress on Monday (Aug. 31). The amount is R$ 4 billion above the R$ 40.8 billion in the initial proposal for 2026.Congressional amendments work like earmarks: they let Brazil's 594 deputies and senators decide where part of the federal budget goes, usually toward public works in their home states. Individual and state-delegation amendments must be executed by the executive branch, and the money is a central bargaining chip between the presidential palace and Congress, according to G1. The government controls the pace of the payments. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a critic of the mechanism, sped up releases ahead of the electoral period, Folha de S.Paulo reported.Congress tends to raise the totalThe bill leaves out commission amendments, the third category in the system. The government passed the decision to Congress, which will have to identify cuts elsewhere, such as running costs or public works, to add the money. A supplementary law caps these amendments at R$ 12.9 billion in 2027, a limit that came out of an agreement between Congress, the government and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) as the court pushed for more transparency.Recent years show the pattern. According to G1, the government's initial proposals rose from R$ 37.6 billion in 2024 to R$ 38.9 billion in 2025 and R$ 40.8 billion in 2026, while Congress inflated the approved totals to R$ 53 billion in 2025 and R$ 61 billion in 2026. For the 2026 budget law, lawmakers cut pension spending, the Pé-de-Meia student aid program and the cooking gas subsidy to enlarge the amendment pool. Lula vetoed R$ 400 million in amendments and shifted another R$ 7 billion, bringing the current total to R$ 49.9 billion, Folha reported.The growth in amendments eats into the government's discretionary spending, which is capped. Less money is left for areas such as research scholarships from CNPq and Capes, infrastructure investment, the subsidized medicine program Farmácia Popular, and environmental and labor inspections, G1 reported. The so-called PIX amendments, a subset of individual amendments, follow the rules of the STF-brokered deal. The court ruled they can stay, but must "respect criteria of transparency, traceability and correction," with prior identification of where the money goes, priority for unfinished public works and accounting to the federal audit court (TCU).What happens nextThe 2027 bill now moves through Congress. Folha reports that deputies and senators are expected to repeat the moves of past years and boost the amounts along the way. Lawmakers must approve the annual budget law by the end of the year for it to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

70 gas stations will answer for abusive fuel price increases, news outlet G1 reported on Monday (Sept 21). The cases were opened by Senacon, the National Consumer Secretariat, Brazil's federal consumer protection agency inside the Ministry of Justice. For the average driver, the message is blunt: the government believes part of the price paid at the pump has no explanation in costs.Each station under investigation faces fines of up to 14 million reais, the ceiling set by Brazil's Consumer Defense Code (CDC), the main law covering relations between companies and customers in the country. That is more money than most Brazilians earn in a lifetime of work. According to G1, the inspections behind the cases took place at stations in Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, São Paulo and Paraná.In part of the inspected stations, Senacon found profit margins above 70%. The agency says abusive margin increases were detected in seven states, with similar complaints on record in 15 more. On Friday (Sept 18), the National Petroleum Agency (ANP), which regulates the sector, said it had received about 330 complaints of possible abusive price hikes and shared the data to support the inspections.What counts as an abusive price increaseFor Senacon, an abusive price increase is a hike with no justification compatible with costs or market conditions. The profit margin is the gap between what a station pays for the fuel and what it charges for it. In simple terms, a 70% margin is like a grocery store buying a sack of rice for 50 reais and selling it for 85.What happens nextSenacon has not disclosed which 70 stations are involved, nor the prices they charged or the gap from their purchase costs. An emergency meeting with consumer protection agencies from across the country is set for Tuesday (Sept 22) to coordinate joint inspections. A survey by Atlas Público, a website that tracks official acts, also records two Senacon cases opened the same day against the companies Ale Combustíveis and Larco for price increases without justification.G1 also reported that federal police are running an operation in Rio de Janeiro against a group suspected of using gas stations to launder money for organized crime. It will now be up to Senacon to conclude the administrative cases and, if violations are proven, apply the penalties set by the CDC.