Brazil President To Renew Push For Oil Royalty Funds Towards Education
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Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff will reattempt to pass a bill earmarking all oil royalties collected by the state to go into public education funding, reported Reuters on Wednesday, after Congress last year stalled a vote towards the initiative following threats of legal action by the nation’s main oil-producing states.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff will reattempt to pass a bill earmarking all oil royalties collected by the state to go into public education funding, reported Reuters on Wednesday, after Congress last year stalled a vote towards the initiative following threats of legal action by the nation’s main oil-producing states.
Addressing the nation during a televised Labour Day speech, Rousseff called on her citizens to press their legislators to back her effort, highlighting that improving education was vital for Brazil’s economic development.
[quote]”In the matter of education, we are stubborn, we are insistent, and we will present a new bill for the resources to be spent exclusively on education,” she asserted, as cited by Xinhua, promising to submit a revised bill to Congress, without giving details.[/quote]A presidential press spokesman told Reuters that he did not know whether the new plan to tie oil royalties to education was different from the first proposal. Nonetheless, Rousseff’s bill is also seen as an attempt to end the bickering between oil producing and non-producing states, who are at odds over the redistribution of oil royalties.
In Rio state for instance, some 200,000 people protested in Rio de Janeiro last year against the bill, complaining that it would deprive the state of its own oil revenue. Rio de Janeiro governor Sergio Cabral further warned that the measure could bankrupt his state ahead of the 2016 Olympics.
The Wall Street Journal pointed out that oil royalty funds had actually yet to materialise, but the nation’s recent oil discoveries had already sparked an argument over the potential money.
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Meanwhile, Brazil’s economy has run into a soft patch after dismal growth in 2012. In her speech, Rousseff promised to return Brazil on a sustainable growth path, adding that the government would continue to cut taxes and reduce costs for local businesses and consumers, despite recent criticism that it was causing rising inflation.
[quote]”This is a constant, unchanging and permanent battle,” she said, highlighting that the government’s effort has seen unemployment drop to just 6 percent – a record low during a time when other countries are losing jobs.[/quote]
