The Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), launched by the government in January, was discussed for more than four hours at the Senate’s Plenary session on Tuesday (13), during a public hearing. The list of attendees included Executive Office minister Dilma Rousseff, Treasury minister Guido Mantega and the Planning minister Paulo Bernardo.

At the hearing, conducted by the Committee on Infrastructure Services (CI) and the Committee on Economic Affairs (CAE), there were protests against the use of the Time-in-Service Guarantee Fund (FGTS) on infrastructure projects, calls for more investment in highway networks, as well as the suggestion of a tax burden limit. Many senators revealed concern about the possibility that problems in the energy sector might harm PAC implementation.   

The first one to speak was the Treasury minister, Guido Mantega, who assured the audience that the country is accumulating the necessary resources to reach a more vigorous growth level, and that this year it should reach 4.5% or 5%. He stated that the federal government already has a reform tax proposal, and he also emphasized its importance to the country’s growth, in accordance with PAC’s prediction of 5% per year.

Dilma Roussef stated that the population will be able to follow the course of PAC’s projects through a monthly report which will be available by Internet. She stated that investments of about R$ 17.4 billion were still destined for the biofuels sector as well as for the expansion of the national oil tanker fleet.

In the debate, Paulo Bernardo pointed out a set of initiatives included in PAC with the purpose of granting greater security and predictability to investments, among them the government proposal to regulate investments under article 23 of the Constitution, that rules over the attributions of federal government and the states in the environmental area.

The joint public hearing was held in response to petitions presented by the president of CI, Marconi Perillo (PSDB-GO) and by Aloizio Mercadante (PT-SP), CAE’s president.