Government debt renegotiation program still raises questions

The Desenrola Brasil Program, launched by the federal government with the idea of ​​helping indebted Brazilians pay their debts, has raised some concerns. For Renata Abalém, lawyer and legal director of the Institute of Consumer and Taxpayer Defense (IDC), the program will benefit banks more instead of favoring and solving the lives of those who are over-indebted. “Those who are super-indebted have a legislation that was the alteration of the consumer protection code, which would be solving, softening the program a lot, but the government wanted to encourage the debt again. For me, you can renegotiate, renegotiate and renegotiate… This will only generate an even greater credit taking, this will impose on the consumer the monthly interest that the provisional measure has already imposed ”, she evaluates.

Economist, coordinator of the Unialfa Research Center and Master in Regional Development, Alexandre Trancoso, says that the proposed debt renegotiation model does not explain how the amount of interest will be charged. “This is a concern because they are already charging interest and then apply 1.99% on top of the debt, and we know that credit card does not forgive this and bank on overdraft neither. So it’s still complicated, they still haven’t explained whether it’s going to be about the amount of the original debt or about the debt that already exists in the bank and that interest has already been charged. If it’s a credit card and overdraft, it’s practically almost 400% a year. And that is very worrying”, he points out.

For the program to work, the lawyer and economist, Alessandro Azzoni, believes that commitment from people and financial institutions will be necessary. “If the debtors manage to assume the installments and honor the installments within their financial potential, we will have extremely positive results, otherwise, it will be just another accumulation of debts”, he highlights.

In the opinion of economist Alexandre Arci, the measure may be positive, but the government will need to work out the risks. “The government still needs to hold an auction for creditors to adhere to this program offering more advantageous rates than those indebted today have”, he stresses.

For experts, the program manages to become attractive when it allows the immediate removal of people’s names from the debtors’ register, that is, the consumer’s name is no longer negative. But they warn of the risks of people creating even greater debts. The expectation is to know whether banks and finance companies will accept this financing model.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the Desenrola Brasil program wants to get up to 70 million Brazilians out of the red. Indebted people will be classified into two ranges. Those who receive up to two minimum wages or who are enrolled in the Single Registry for Social Programs of the Federal Government (CadÚnico) and who have debts totaling up to 5,000 reais will remain in track 1. In Range II, it refers to people with bank debts. In this case, the government offers financial institutions, in exchange for debt discounts, a regulatory incentive to increase the supply of credit. Approximately 30 million people should benefit from this range. In Bands I and II, operations through the Desenrola Brasil program will be exempt from IOF. Creditors will be able to buy credits at auctions starting in July.