Bolsonaro pension reform takes its first steps at the Brazilian Congress

The pension reform project in Brazil, with which the president of the right Jair Bolsonaro you play your credibility in front of the markets, pbaded on Tuesday its first legislative test to be declared admissible by a committee of the Chamber of Deputies.

After a tense session of more than nine hours, The Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) approved, by 48 votes for, 18 against and 0 abstention, this project aimed at balancing the deficit public accounts of the main Latin American economy.

The government aims to generate a net saving of more than R $ 1.16 trillion (approximately $ 300,000 million at the current exchange rate) in a decade.

Now it has to be approved by a special commission, this will badyze it in detail, before being sent to the plenary of the House; there you should have a three fifths of the seats, double vote, because it is a constitutional amendment.

Second act, these procedures must be repeated in the Senate.

The architect of this project, the Minister of the Economy Paulo Guedes, press to finish everything in the first half.

The first step of this Tuesday came after the government agreed to change four points, which benefit certain categories, to obtain the support of the bloc formed by a dozen conservative parties (the "centrao") which provided Bolsonaro with essential electoral support.

As in previous sessions, the opposition, with several parties from left to center-left, including the Workers Party (PT) and the Trabalhista Democratic Party (PDT), has tried a new postponement, like one that had raised doubts last week about the ability of the political articulation of the government and caused a stock market crash.

Many of the controversies revolved around the opposition's demand to publish the studies on which the project was conducted.. The government promised to do this by sending the text to the Special Commission.

The draft constitutional amendment establishes a minimum age of 62 for women and 65 for retired men.

The proposal also provides for Brazilians wishing to retire with a full pensiona 40-year mandatory contribution to the system and increase the contribution period from 15 to 20 years receive the minimum benefit.

Brazil is one of the few countries not to set a minimum age for retirement. The current system allows women who have been in retirement for 30 years and men who have been doing so for 35 years, with no minimum age, although the amount of benefits increases for those who extend their working lives.

(With information from AFP)