Câmara dos Deputados

The far-right, anchored in the National Congress, managed to pass a bill in the Chamber of Deputies' Public Security and Combating Organized Crime Committee (CSPCCO) that invades the powers of the Rouanet Law and seizes resources allocated to the National Culture Fund (FNC). If approved by the plenary, the bill is devastating and will divert approximately R$2,6 billion in resources from crucial projects currently funded by the FNC, such as the São Paulo Biennial Foundation and the Brazilian Cinematheque.

The bill's rapporteur is Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ), a defendant in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) for attempted coup d'état and criminal association. It was authored by Kim Kataguiri (União-SP, convicted of associating Caetano Veloso with pedophilia). It deals with something completely unrelated to the cultural field: a law to expand the number of maximum-security prisons. The artistic world's concern about the bill's progress in Congress led to the adoption of a petition opposing the bill, which already had over 3 signatures this afternoon.

To try to block the ill-fated bill's progress, progressive representatives such as Denise Pêssoa (Workers' Party-RS), Aureo Ribeiro (Solidariedade-RJ), and Luciene Cavalcanti (PSOL-SP) are trying to include the Culture Committee in the matter's progress, as it directly impacts the cultural sector. The perverse nature of the bill consists of transferring the resources allocated under the Rouanet Law to the FNC to the new text, as if that were possible.

"Regarding the funding source for this important public policy, it is clear that the repeal of the tax benefits granted by Law No. 8.313/91 (Rouanet Law) could recover approximately R$1,5 billion annually. This amount, currently uncollected due to tax breaks, represents a significant source of resources that could be redirected to improving maximum-security prison units," said author Kataguiri when presenting the bill. Someone must have warned him of the mistake soon after, since Rouanet Law resources, to exist, must first be raised from the private sector, and only then can they be deducted from income tax payments. It was then that, in May, the far-right front decided to advance existing resources within the Rouanet Law system, the only one of which is the direct investment fund, the FNC.

Finally, the text approved by the rapporteur in the Public Security Committee included the deletion of sections V, VI, and VII of the Rouanet Law and the entire Article 4 to ensure that cash is available for the implementation of the bill. However, the proposal continues to make the mistake of stating that it aims to "redirect resources currently subject to tax waivers to the prison system." It is scandalous that representatives, regardless of party, fail to inform themselves in advance (or are profoundly unaware of) the public funding mechanisms they so zealously covet.

“By removing resources from a consolidated and strategic public policy such as culture, the project weakens precisely one of the most effective instruments for reducing violence and social exclusion,” says the petition, signed, among others, by Adauto Novaes, Adriana Falcão, Chico Pinheiro, Cláudia Abreu, Eliane Brum, Fábio Assunção, Fernando Gabeira, Flávia Oliveira, Itamar Vieira Jr, José Eduardo Agualusa, Lili Schwarcz, Luiz Schwarcz, Malu Mader, Milton Hatoum, Paloma Jorge Amado and hundreds of intellectuals and artists.


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