The National Treasury will inject 6 billion reais into the BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) to finance a new credit line for the purchase of trucks.
The loan will be subsidized, and the final rate should be around 14% per year, slightly lower than the Selic (base interest rate), currently 15% per year.
The action is contained in a MP (provisional measure) published by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) on Tuesday evening (16). The text will come into force immediately and will set the ceiling for transfers from the Treasury to the BNDES.
The total amount made available for operations will, however, be larger, as the state bank will also provide its own resources.
The composition of these two sources of financing will give rise to what technicians call a “blend”, a mixture of subsidized and market resources.
After the publication of the deputy, the government will send a modifying message to the National Congress to amend a bill and create an action in the budget to unlock resources.
The transfer represents a financial expenditure for the National Treasury, that is to say it has no impact on budgetary rules, but will contribute to the increase in the country’s public debt.
The information on the credit line was anticipated by Valor and confirmed by Leaf.
The argument of supporters of the measure is that the road transport sector is facing a sudden slowdown, with a risk of impact on employment.
Critics, however, see this initiative as the embryo of a new PSI (Investment Support Program), created under the Lula II government to stimulate economic growth. The initiative, however, ended up consuming a large volume of public resources in the form of subsidies, which caused an imbalance in the government’s accounts and was the embryo of the 2016 recession.
However, in the eyes of government technicians, the fact that the MP foresees a limit of 6 billion reais already serves as a vaccine against the risk of a new PSI.
Stimulus measures for the truck sector were a request from Anfavea (National Association of Automobile Manufacturers). Earlier this month, the entity’s president, Igor Calvet, said a cheaper credit line would be positive for the sector given the observed slowdown.
“In view of this scenario of high interest rates, I understand that the most immediate measures would be precisely a fleet renewal program or some form of cheaper credit lines. Cheaper credit would be extremely positive at the moment in the market, because it would very well signal attractive maqis credit lines and the end consumer could provide this motivation to the market”, he said last week, publishing the balance sheet of the sector.
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