BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian Senator Marcelo Castro said on Monday that he officially presented to Congress a constitutional amendment backed by President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to exempt the “Bolsa Familia” welfare program from a constitutional spending cap for four years starting in 2023.
Earlier in November, he had said that Lula wanted to permanently strip the program from the cap known as Brazil’s main fiscal anchor, which triggered negative reactions from markets, fearing the proposal’s impact on public accounts and the country’s debt.
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(Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Marcela Ayres; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
