The Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, guaranteed that the extinction of the Extraordinary Secretariat for Reconstruction of Rio Grande do Sul will not affect the federal government’s assistance to the state. “Everything will continue normally”, said the minister this Wednesday (11), in Porto Alegre, when releasing an overview of the actions carried out so far.
Starting this Thursday (12), a secretariat linked to the Civil House will be responsible for running the projects. According to Rui Costa, until then, R$98.7 billion had been allocated to Rio Grande do Sul, including investments, humanitarian aid and advances. Of this total, more than R$42 billion was paid. “It’s a huge injection into the economy,” he said.
The government divided deliveries into eight axes. In the first of them, the emergency, 105 thousand basic food baskets, 8 million medicines and supplies were distributed, 557 thousand electricity points were reconnected and 32 thousand tons of donations were transported. In this stage, 130 aircraft, 850 vessels, 5,200 vehicles and 12 field hospitals were used.
On the institutional axis, according to the report, in addition to the creation of a secretariat with ministry status, construction aid worth R$5,100 was paid to 374 thousand families; R$285 million in worker aid – a minimum wage for two months and the company’s commitment to maintaining jobs for 4 months; 67 thousand families were added to Bolsa Família and R$3.45 billion released from the Severance Indemnity Fund (FGTS).
With regard to support for companies, the state and municipalities are:
- Suspension of payment of financing from BNDES, BB, Caixa and Finep;
- Extension of federal tax collection by up to 3 months;
- Suspension of payment of rural credit operations;
- Debt renegotiation;
- Almost R$3 billion contracted via Pronampe;
- Postponement of state debt for 3 years.
Ten thousand cultural grants worth R$5,500 were also paid, in addition to the reconstruction of 26 schools and the renovation of another 199. In parliamentary amendments, especially for infrastructure works, R$1.3 billion was released in the last four months.
In the housing area, 24,800 homes are planned through Minha Casa Minha Vida Reconstrução and another 38,472 housing units through other arms of the program.
“It is very important that we can maintain this capacity for convergence, for understanding, because we have very large works to be carried out. Naturally, reconstruction in itself is already a challenge, even more challenging is the construction of flood containment systems and city resilience”, added the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite.
