More than 20 years after the establishment of the Minimum Price Guarantee Policy, the agricultural sector may be about to gain a new incentive with the approval of a bill that enhances the government subsidy mechanisms for rural insurance – the Senate (PLS) 185/2017 of Senator Kátia Abreu (PDT-TO), informs the “Senate Agency”.
The discussion of the proposal in the Economic Affairs Committee (EAC) was closed on the last day 07 and should be voted on at the next meeting of the board, still to be scheduled. The text, which will go directly to the Chamber of Deputies if it is approved in the CAE, amends Law 8,427, of 1992 to allow the premium on put options contracts negotiated through the São Paulo Stock Exchange, Mercadorias e Futuros ( BM&F) can be subsidized with resources coming from the Budget of the Union.
PLS 185/2017 also extends rural insurance coverage, from protection against climatic hazards to other types of claims derived, for example from epidemics, commercialization or exchange rate variations. The text included the equalization of rural insurance – in addition to equalizing interest on rural loans and guaranteeing prices – among the items covered by Law 8.427 / 1992.
The bill also amends Law 10,823 / 2003, known as the Rural Insurance Subsidy Law, to transfer the equalization of rural insurance premiums from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) to the National Treasury Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance Farm.
According to Kátia Abreu, after 26 years of Law 8,427 / 1992 and 15 years of Law 10,823 / 2003, it became necessary to modernize its texts in order to create in Brazil the conditions for the implementation of an effective risk management policy in the agricultural sector. She says the project will set the industry’s third milestone.
“The first was with President Collor when he established the policy of minimum prices in the country, changing the way of financing production. But then, I want to remember, in 2003, came the project of Moacir Micheletto that, after years of struggle along with Jonas Pinheiro, I was still a deputy, we made the insurance of the climate. At the time, we wanted to do the price insurance too, market risk, but it was not possible and we just got the insurance. the two great advances: in 1992, in 2003, still under the Lula government, and now, in 2018, approving this one, we will have the third milestone for Brazilian agriculture, “he said.
GDP growth
The senator noted that agricultural GDP has grown 90% since 1992 with the establishment of the Minimum Price Policy. “This means 4% per year, while Brazil has grown by 2%, only with this Collor government law, so I want to leave our eternal gratitude here on behalf of the producers for this initiative. has the great opportunity to approve this third milestone for Brazilian agricultural financing. I also hope that, over the next 20 years, we can triple the GDP of the agricultural sector only with this gesture, “he said.
Rapporteur of the matter at the CAE, Senator Ronaldo Caiado (DEM-GO) considered the project timely to approximate the instruments of financing, price guarantee and rural insurance. This would be done by including in the law the equalization of rural insurance premiums, by stipulating that the subsidy to the premium becomes part of the Official Loan Operations managed by the National Treasury Secretariat, and by providing for the subsidy to the Sale Option Contracts Award , which will allow the government to create a private options grant program to stimulate rural producers to protect themselves against price risks at the time of cultivation and planting.
Senator Armando Monteiro (PTB-PE), who also praised the proposal, said: “The author, Senator Kátia Abreu, innovates and offers a new instrument to modernize the sector’s risk management, which may be a very interesting aspect in the future to reduce the fiscal impact of the level of subsidies and implicit subsidies in rural credit operations “.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.