Government releases R$1.88 billion from the Budget with a focus on Cities and Health

The Ministries of Cities and Health were the departments benefiting from the release of R$1.88 billion from the 2026 Budget, the Ministry of Planning and Budget announced on Wednesday night (30).

The Cities portfolio had R$1.46 billion released. For Health, the unfreezing amounted to R$41.9 million.

The new spending limits are contained in the decree published in an extraordinary edition of the Official Gazette of the Union, with the new detailed values ​​for blocks and contingencies by ministries and bodies. According to legislation, the decree comes out six days after sending the Bimonthly Income and Expense Assessment Report to the National Congress, a document that guides the execution of the Budget.

According to the decree, of the R$1.881 billion released on the 24th, R$1.507 billion will come from the New Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) and R$461.2 million from parliamentary amendments.

However, the other Powers – Legislative, Judiciary, Public Ministry and Public Defender of the Union – had R$ 86.2 million contingency.

Ministries and other federal bodies have until October 7th to detail the programs that will receive more resources.

The latest edition of the Bimonthly Revenue and Expense Assessment Report reduced the volume blocked in the 2026 Budget from R$17.937 billion to R$16.056 billion.

Parliamentary amendments

Even with the release of resources, R$3.304 billion in parliamentary bench amendments, resources indicated by deputies and senators for works and projects in the states, remain frozen.

In this case, Complementary Law 210/2024, approved to regulate the execution of parliamentary amendments and increase the transparency of these resources, will be applied.

Under the complementary law, amendments are blocked or unblocked up to the same proportion applied to other discretionary expenses, to meet fiscal targets. However, Congress will be able to define priorities when there is a need for blocking or contingency, indicating which programs will have resources preserved and which will be affected by cuts, within the limits defined by the government.

Faseamento

In addition to lockdowns, the government is using so-called commitment phasing. The mechanism does not cut resources, but temporarily limits the speed with which agencies can make new financial commitments.

The measure works as a cash flow control. If revenue is below expectations, the government avoids committing (authorizing the expenditure of) resources before confirming the inflow of revenue.

The commitment restriction is expected to amount to R$24.058 billion until November. The value subject to this control drops to zero in December.

When adding the frozen total (contingent and blocked) just for the Executive Branch, the restriction reaches R$40.028 billion until November, before falling to R$15.969 billion in December.

Tipos de despesa

The current fiscal framework divides frozen resources into two types: contingency and blocking.

The two measures restrict the execution of expenses, but are triggered for different reasons:

Blocking: occurs when there is an increase or risk of an increase in mandatory expenses and it is necessary to respect the spending limit of the fiscal framework.

Contingency: adopted when the revenue estimate falls and it is necessary to preserve compliance with the primary result target.

The two can occur simultaneously, as happened in the fourth quarter of 2026.

In the current case, the reduction in the blockade was partially offset by the new contingency, keeping total expenses under containment at R$16.1 billion.

For this year, the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) foresees zero primary result (neither deficit nor surplus), with a tolerance margin of up to R$31 billion more or less.

This year, the federal government did not limit the Budget, because it foresees a primary deficit (saving resources to pay interest on the public debt) of R$ 13.6 billion, excluding court orders and some spending on health, education and defense. If expenses outside the fiscal framework are included, the result will be negative at R$80.9 billion.